24 volumes of heartache and bliss
by Night Silver's whisper
Summary: Treisha was normal, but she loved Dragon Knights with a passion, so when she's popped into their world and knows everything that's going to happen, can she stop the chaos that she knows is coming, or will that only make things worse? CHAPTERS TO BE REVISE
1. Chapter 1: A dream come true

Rune

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Knights. I own Treisha, but all characters and such belong to Mineko Ohkami.**

**ALERT: Spoilers! There are going to be major spoilers of anything from book one through book 24.**

**Chapter one: Is this a dream come true?**

"Damn it." Treisha cursed, shoving another branch away as it slapped her across the face. Her cheek burning, she felt a trickle of sweat slide between her shoulder blades. She grimaced and wiped sweat from her eyes.

She looked towards her feet, and scowled as she was once more reminded of how she followed no path. She glanced towards the sky, and was also reminded of the descending sun. She wiggled her toes, but she didn't need this action to remind her of her fatigue.

Lost, that's what she was. She hated to admit it. Her mind kept flipping back to all those lessons in wilderness survival, compass navigation, GPS work, she was even reasonably competent in maps. Despite all these wonderful skills, she was undeniably, completely….lost.

She was also lost to how this had happened.

Had she not, minutes ago, been sitting in a bookstore with friends? Had her brain finally failed her, and it had been an illusion that she'd been sitting in the Japanese Manga section, skimming the shelves with hope written in her young eyebrows? After 17 years of living on this green earthen planet, had Treisha Cigma finally abandoned her marbles, and had insanity swept into take her?

She could have gone upon the witness stand in court, and swore with the best of conviction, that she HAD been sitting in that bookstore, and that she had been desperately searching for a particular book. A lie detector could have been linked to her brain waves, and not found a single line out of place, and still, she would have sworn that she'd been sitting among books, and not under a canopy of trees.

"I am not insane." She growled to herself, slapping at her shoulder, feeling the phantom caress of an insect. "I am not."

Treisha shoved another branch away from her face, only to once again have it snap back at her, but this time her quick reflexes moved her away from the threat.

She paused, and settled onto a nearby fallen tree. She ran a hand through her shoulder length brown gold hair.

"Breathe." She said, sighing, and shutting her eyes. "You are a Search and Rescue Officer. You are smarter than this. Think."

And she did think. She forced her mind to consider the situation from every rational angle she could manage. Despite her strained efforts, Treisha failed to form a reasonable explanation for how this had happened. She instead moved her mind to thoughts of how she was going to survive the night. She shut away thoughts of court rooms, insanity, and mysteriously appearing woods, and instead turned it to the quickly setting sun.

"Shelter." She said firmly. "Then a fire." She continued, and breathed deeply. She didn't worry about keeping calm. She'd been stuck overnight in a forest so many times they weren't countable. The only difference was that she usually slept with her SAR team. (Search and Rescue)

A twig snapped. Treisha's head jerked up in alarm. Despite all her training, she had not been trained in defending herself against forest animals.

Soon, Treisha realized it was human words she heard, and not that of an animals. With this knowledge in mind, she rose to her feet, cautious, as was her nature. She lowered herself to the ground, and peered through a cluster of dark green ferns.

She saw a man sitting on a fallen log much like the one she'd lounged on, only larger. The man appeared young, no more than early twenties. He had one leg crossed over the other, and long golden yellow hair cascading over slim, strong shoulders. Her eyes moved to pointed elfin ears, to pale skin, to bright gold eyes. He wore a long pair of white pants, which disappeared into knee high brown boots. He wore a tunic, but only the white sleeves and cuffs could be seen, because an over layer of brown covered it.

"Rune?" Treisha laughed in disbelief. Immediately, the fairy prince lunged to his feet, on guard at once. Treisha knew he was prepared to summon his sword.

"Whose there?" He called blindly, and Treisha paused a moment to relish the sound and pitch of it. It was nearly the same as she'd dreamt it. Smooth and graceful notes, calm and composed pitches.

"No." She laughed, turning away from the scene. She faced the log she'd been sitting upon a few moments ago, and shut her eyes. "No." She smiled.

She'd never been the type of character to dismiss the unusual, or even the paranormal. Indeed, she worked at a Magic Shop in Portland Oregon. There, she'd both observed and participated in rune casting, palm reading, and concocting herbal remedies for varied ailments.

However, she also knew when the fates were screwing with her, and this felt like one of those times.

"Hello?" A voice called.

"Of course," she mumbled under her breath. "If that's just the fates screwing with me again, I do say they picked a damned good choice."

"Is anyone there?" Came that beautiful sing-song voice again. She sent a glare towards the heavens.

"Well, since it seems you've decided to draw this out…" she trailed off with a sigh. "I guess I should indulge before the dream ends, and you decide you've had enough of this game."

"Who are you?" Asked Rune, having stepped through the surrounding brush and into the open. Treisha turned to face him.

"Not a demon, so no cause for alarm." She laughed.

Rune hesitated, and then relaxed, and let his hand drop, sword summoning forgotten.

"I apologize then." And Rune tossed her a smile. "But I don't come across wandering girls in the forest every day." He held out his hand. "I'm Rune."

"I know." She replied, having just realized she'd used his name earlier. She tried to form a rational lie and chewed the inside her cheek, an old habit.

Lies were scarce in coming though. Coming up with a story to tell Rune that both justified how she knew his name as well as why she was out here was a difficulty. Even now, Rune was raising a curious eyebrow.

"I caught your name in town." Treisha threw out finally. She'd easily discarded the idea of speaking the truth. She wouldn't waste the time on a person who was probably a mere figment created by her very colorful imagination.

Abruptly, Treisha had to lunge to the side, as a black haired boy came flying past her, sword already summoned. He was jerking his head from side to side, his eyes scanning the terrain.

"Put that sword away Rath. There aren't any demons here." Rune was growling.

"What?" The boy moaned, his blade falling to hang at his side, and then vanished the next time Treisha blinked. "There aren't?"

Treisha's eyes ticked from Rune, to Rath, and then she pursed her lips in wait.

_Come on. _She breathed silently. _Go ahead! Make the dream complete why don't you?_

In response, Thatz appeared at her back and clapped a hand on her shoulder.

"You better be asking directions to a diner Rune." Thatz groaned as he came to stand in the circle with the other three. "We haven't eaten since morning, and all this stumbling through the forest, despite the fact we've found…."

Rune cut him off immediately.

"Excuse my manners!" He said loudly, shushing the other boy. He motioned to his two friends. "This is Rath and Thatz." He motioned to her and paused.

"Treisha." She confirmed, smiling.

"He forgot already!" Thatz laughed loudly. "Talk about terrible memory!"

Treisha replied before Rune could.

"I don't think it's a matter of memory-loss Thatz. If my memory serves, the Dragon Clan has very good memories, among other gifts." Treisha wasn't being very careful with what she said. It didn't matter in dreams.

"How does she know we're of the Dragon Clan?" Rath asked, leaning over and whispering in Rune's ear.

"She's heard it in town, probably." The elf replied, and Rath turned to pass the message onto Thatz, who then turned in kind to whisper it to…thin air.

"So why the wandering in the forest Treisha?" Rune inquired.

Here came more quick thinking as she formed another lie.

"Got lost I think." She said smoothly. "I was traveling to Chantle, but I've lost my way."

"There are worse places to wander into." Rath snickered, and Thatz chuckled.

Treisha couldn't resist remembering the time the knights had mistook fairy forest for a demonic one.

"And what is the purpose of your forest wandering?" She asked them. "Not lost as well are you?" She'd decided that as long as she was caught up in this dream world, she might as well play around a bit.

"Demons." Said Rath.

"Treasure." Said Thatz.

"Guys!" Shouted Rune, closing his eyes, and speaking in a low tone. Treisha saw Thatz and Rath creep away from him, as if the fairy were a time bomb about to go off.

"We're returning to Draqueen actually." Thatz explained, observing Rune chase Rath, who'd taken shelter behind a tree.

Ignoring the two fighting knights, Treisha glanced to her current companion. Standing beside her, she saw not the powerful Earth Dragon Knight who would later wield the snow sword. Instead, she saw the youth who was barely out of his thieving days, and into his days of the sword.

She took in his brown hair, which fell to his shoulders in huge tussles that were nothing like the silky waves it would become later. He bore the scar of a cross on his cheek, though she could not remember who dealt it. He wore white slacks tucked into shin high white boots. He wore a sleeveless brown shirt, which he'd seem to have chopped the sleeves of, and then still wore them, meaning they were disconnected. He was grinning at his friend's violence, and Treisha noted the old thief in that smile.

Rune resumed his irritated position across from Treisha, leaving a cowering Rath by the tree, rubbing a sore butt, which had been kicked.

"We should be on our way." Rune said, brushing himself off. Thatz nodded vigorously.

"Yes!" he shouted. "With all this slaying of demons all afternoon, and this constant searching, I've been starved of my body's nutrition!"

"Shut up Thatz." Rune groaned. Thatz wilted, as anime tears became orbs of water beneath his eyes.

"But Rune, I'm hungry. This is too much work. The mission's finished, can't we go celebrate now?"

Rune heaved a huge sigh, and seeing he'd given in, Thatz punched a fist into the air with a loudly exclaimed "YES" which Rath joined in for with his own fist in the air.

"You wouldn't mind if I tagged along, just until you hit town?" Treisha asked them, and immediately, Thatz had taken her hand in his and was looking at her with big eyes.

"Yes, yes, yes," He exclaimed, his bangs hanging in his wide golden colored eyes. "You can come travel with us, and eat, and then you can…." Suddenly Thatz collapsed to the forest floor, as a huge boulder larger than his body fell upon his head. Rune was grinning smugly.

"We'd be happy to escort you all the way back to Chantle too Treisha, since that is our next stop. Besides, it would be rude of us to leave a young lady out in the woods." His smile was sweet, and the notion that he was ignoring Thatz behind him was obvious. Thatz had gotten to his feet now, the boulder having disappeared as easily as it had appeared.

Rune had begun to swiftly walk away, Treisha followed after, still waiting for the fates to stop screwing with her and yank her into the sky, and plop her back into the comic store.

The sun had begun to set.

A grin slipped onto her face. She'd always gathered amusement from Rune's unique ability to summon boulders from thin air, as well as machine guns, which were beyond this time period's technology.

She wiped the grin from her face with an air of irritation.

She ruled this ordeal could not be caused by insanity, so it must be a dream, brought on by either fatigue or stress.

Although it wasn't as if she hadn't dreamed of the DK before. She'd had numerous dreams in which she spent afternoons with these characters, fighting in their battles, or even just observing the sexiness of some of their appearances. As a result of walking by their sides so many times, it wasn't a surprise she'd daydreamed of what she would choose to do if she ever "did" get dropped into their world.

And yet it didn't feel like images conjured only by her brain. The sweat upon her back felt real. The ache of her feet felt real enough, and the scents of the forest seemed too vivid to be anything but reality.

"So Treisha," Rune asked as she fell in step with him. Observing his appearance through quizzical eyes, Treisha took a moment to wonder how he hid his fairy blood at all. It was written into every crease of his clothing, into the lines of his cheek bones, and the waves of golden hair. "Where are you from?" He asked her.

It was easy to say Treisha was not pleased with how high her pile of lies was beginning to mount.

"You could say I'm a wanderer, Rune." She wondered briefly if it was a bad sign she lied so easily. "I'm not from these parts, as you can probably tell." With this last sentence, she became starkly aware of the two boys flanking her and Rune, which were now whispering fervently.

"She's right." Thatz hissed into Rath's ear. "See her clothes? She can't be from around here at all." Rath nodded his head in response.

Treisha glanced down at herself. She observed that she probably fit into the style of this world more than any of her friends would have. Despite this, her clothing still set her aside from that of the knights.

She wore a pair of long brown velvet pants, and a tucked in black halter top. She was wearing a pair of heavy dark purple leather boots which felt like blocks of cement now, and she'd tied her jacket about her waist….a black velvet fancy dress jacket.

"Maybe she's from somewhere near the Southern Continent." Rath was mumbling to Thatz, and Treisha frowned.

The Southern Continent meant Arinas. They should have known better than to think her an Arinas resident. Then again, now that she considered it…did the three know that the One Winged Alchemist ruled that piece of land? No, they couldn't. They didn't yet know of his existence, not until the slaughtering of fairies began.

This brought forth another thought. Where in the series of 25 books had the fates drop her? It'd been immediately obvious that it had to be in the first ten, because the three hadn't undergone their transformation of book 11. They were still children, three warrior youths serving the Dragon lord and getting distracted during every journey they were given.

But Thatz had mentioned their current mission, and that it had just concluded. Could it be….that the fates had actually been kind enough to begin this dream at book one?

She sent her eyes to the darkening sky, and sighed.

Then smiled as she spotted smoke trails in the sky in the distance, the markings of the next city.

How long were the fates going to allow her this dream, before they ended it? How long until they sliced through the fabric of its existence, and jerked her back to reality? How long would they allow this surprising gift to go on, before they cruelly woke her up?

How long until her blissful insanity would be up?

**So there you go! This is the end of the first chapter. Are you interested in seeing what happens next? What will the Dragon lord say when he hears they've found someone who knows everything that is going to happen to the Dragon Clan for the next several years? What happens when Treisha falls in love with someone in the series?**

**Stay tuned to find out!**

**Rath: What? That's it? I didn't even get to fight any demons.**

**Thatz: There wasn't any treasure.**

**Rune: Do I have to deal with this even "after" the chapter is finished? What gives miss story writer?**

**Me: I'll inform you that its my story…and you can all stop your whining. The next chapter has you having more fun anyway. **

**Rune: I highly doubt that.**

**Rath: (snickers) So pessimistic Rune! **

**Rune: You got a problem? (Tries to split Rath's head in two with his sword) **

**Thatz: (pushes the two apart) you guys are acting like two year olds. Stop it already.**

**Rune and Rath look at each other.**

**Rune: Hey Thatz.**

**Thatz: Yeah?**

**Rath: Demons usually guard treasure. **

**Thatz: TREASURE! **

**Rath and Rune glance at each other. **

**Rune: And he says WE act like two year olds.**

**Thatz begins the happy dance…..**


	2. Chapter 2: If Witche's were Horses

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Knights. I own Treisha, but all characters and such belong to Mineko Ohkami.**

**ALERT: Spoilers! There are going to be major spoilers of anything from book one through book 24.**

**Chapter Two: Book one! If witches were horses. **

"How can you two sit around stuffing food into your faces at a time like this?" Rune was yelling loudly, and jumped to his feet. The other two just continued to stare at him, still eating.

The four of them had just sat down to have lunch in a diner called the Tiny-Mini. Although Rune had agreed to heading to town for some food, he apparently had forgotten this, and was now yelling at the other two over it. Treisha sat with them silently, watching the chaos. They weren't in Chantle, but had stopped at a small town near it. Treisha didn't remember the name, besides, if she was remembering the town correctly, it shouldn't have a name at all.

"Hm?" Rath said, raising an eyebrow in question as he made a slurping noise, and then swallowed. "What's the matter?"

"You don't like your pickles?" Thatz said, acting oblivious to Rune's anger apparently, but Treisha knew he wasn't. The ex-thief stared at Rune's plate, and spoke softly. "I'll eat em." Treisha giggled, and then Rath spoke up.

"Relax and tell the readers what's up." He said, setting down his food for a second in momentary seriousness.

"Readers?" Rune looked at a loss for a moment. "Huh? Ohhhh." He seemed to finally figure out what Rath was talking about, but Treisha sat there dumbfounded.

It was strange. To her memory, this was the one part in the whole series they referred to the people reading the book, and she wondered if they even knew why they said those words. She didn't know, and before she could ask, they moved right on.

"We were on a mission from the Dragon Lord to retrieve the head of our dreadful enemy, Nadil." Rune was saying, as if explaining in to the person holding the book. Under the table, Treisha counted with her fingers how long it would take for Rath and Thatz intrude on their fairy friend's speech. "Now that the missions accomplished, we should….." The other two ended up being right on cue.

"Eat local delicacies in the country. Yeah!" Exclaimed Thatz loudly, pumping a fist into the air.

"And kick some demon butt on the frontier." Said Rath, getting to his feet like Thatz just had, and some flames appeared behind him, apparently to highlight his excitement.

"I don't think that's what he meant." Treisha broke in, and Rune nodded his head at her.

"That's right Treisha. We are not pausing here. We need to move on." Rune interrupted them this time, clenching a hand into a fist. "We're going back to Draqueen! The Lord is waiting for us!" Rune said seriously, but ignoring the fairy completely, Treisha watched as Thatz instead replied to Rath.

"What?! Demon's again?! I'm tired Rath." Thatz took on an expression of whining and a frown to go with it.

"Lazy bum!" Rath yelled at him, a hand clenched into a fist as well. Treisha was the only one who had her eyes on Rune, and the other two should have as well.

"Uh…guys?" Treisha said, and motioned with a finger to the elf standing a few feet away. It was too late though to stop Rune now.

"I SAID…" Rune growled in a deep voice, and Treisha watched him begin to draw his sword. She instinctively drew slightly away from him. "SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!!"

Just then, Treisha glimpsed something in the corner of her eye. She turned in her chair slightly, as she glanced behind her. There, standing by the corner of the restaurant, stood Cesia. She wore a long black dress, a piece of gray satin tied about her waist. Her hair cascaded just past her shoulders in dark gray waves. She had her arms crossed behind her back, and a necklace could just barely be seen worn around her neck, and Treisha knew just what would be hung on that chain. Her dragon amulet that kept her evil self held at bay. Treisha let a grin come to her lips as she turned away from the girl standing in the doorway. This was Cesia, the witch's foster child, who would later become part of this small team of knights, and later, much more. Cesia looked so different, since she hadn't had her transformation yet. Well, it wouldn't be long.

"Put down your sword, Rune!" Rath was yelling, and Treisha watched as he jumped away from the older boy.

"Save the food!!" Thatz exclaimed in what sounded like genuine concern.

"You guys are all over the place." Treisha said, but nobody heard her, as she grabbed her plate and Thatz's before they could go flying off the table and shatter. She was a moment too late to catch Rath's.

"Why are you so pissed off, man?" Rath asked a second later, panting heavily. "The lord told us to go fight demons."

"The lord also told us to get back soon!" Rune said, getting right up into Rath's face. He was bearing down on him with his sword. The only thing apparently keeping Rune's blade from splitting Rath's head in two was the two hands he'd clapped on either side of the weapon. Rath had a worried frown on his face.

"Really?" Rath said, looking at his friend. "You're serious eh?"

"You're such a brown-noser Rune." Thatz said, taking a bite out of a piece of fruit, identical to the many others that were held in a bag in his arms. He looked totally unconcerned with Rune's anger, and Rune seemed pissed off with this knowledge. "It's not like the boss man can see us now." Thatz went on, and Rune glanced over his shoulder to glare at him.

"Got a problem?"

"Aieeeee." Rath was saying, looking at the sword right above his head, but Treisha was the only that heard him. She considered for a mere moment getting up to help him, and then decided that would be a bad idea. Rune apparently had forgotten Rath was there, but Treisha knew Rune wouldn't do anything too bad to his younger companion.

"It's just a job. Relax or you'll snap." Thatz said, putting an elbow on the table, and balancing his chin on it. "Sit down and eat." Rune surprisingly did as Thatz had suggested. He slipped his sword back into its sheath on his hip, and for a moment, he sat there peacefully, and then spoke and said something that Treisha knew he then regretted.

"If we let our guard down, the enemy might come and eat us." Said Rune, closing his eyes a moment, and turning slightly away from the other two as he popped a grape into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed it.

"What?" Rath said, looking shocked, and leaned back in his chair. Next to him, Treisha saw Thatz's hair go up on end, and his eyes widen. Treisha covered her mouth as she gave a giggle.

For a moment, Treisha directed a bit of her attention to the place behind her, as she sensed Cesia leaving the doorway, but the sly look in the girl's eyes was something Treisha missed, as she watched the mayhem that was about to break out in front of her.

"Eat…..us?" Said Rath, a grin slowly coming to his lips, and Treisha saw the other two tense. A second later, and Rath had gotten to his feet, and was in Rune's face. "You mean there are demons around?! Can we fight em?! Please, Rune!" Rune leaned away from Rath, his hands in front of him as if to shield himself from the insanity before him. Maybe he thought it was contagious?

"Me and my big mouth." Rune mumbled to himself.

Suddenly, Thatz jumped up, and pushing his two hands into Rune and Rath's faces, he shoved the two apart from each other. A moment later, he'd grabbed a large canvas that had once again, appeared out of nowhere, and stuffed Rath into it.

"Why'd you have to get him all worked up?" Thatz said, looking at Rune as he tied the canvas shut, and Treisha could see Rath struggling within. "He'll drag us into it."

"Your just lazy, Thatz." Rune replied to him, stiffening and scowling at Thatz.

Treisha burst out laughing, and as if the group had completely forgotten she was there, they looked at her.

"I pity poor Rath." Treisha said, running a hand through her hair several times as she tried to calm the laughter she'd been trying to hold in. "He wants to fight demons, but his two friends just want to go treasure hunting, or head back to Draqueen." She let out another laugh, and then realized Thatz was looking at her. Oops, he was probably wondering how Treisha knew he liked treasure hunting. Neither commented on it though, and Rune just said,

"Well, we really should be heading back to Draqueen, but these two doofus's keep detouring us."

"I do not." Came the muffled voice from within the struggling bag, and Rune gave the bag a slap, which resulted in a loud "Ow" from Rath, getting another laugh from Treisha.

Treisha and the others hadn't yet noticed that ever since they'd arrived, they were the only customers in the place. It would have been strange, but then again, none of them had noticed that when they'd entered the town there hadn't been anyone in sight either. The only person they had seen was the one waitress, Cesia, standing on the steps to the Tiny-Mini, waving them over with an innocent smile.

"COME ON! TELL ME!" Rath yelled. His head had somehow wriggled out of the top of the canvas, and he was now sitting on the ground, as the other two were standing on their feet.

"You're always thinking with your sword." Rune yelled back at him, a hand clenched into a fist as he glared down at the boy sitting on the floor of the restaurant, wrapped up in a canvas. It was a funny sight to anyone not involved in the argument, which really only included Treisha/

"What's wrong with that?!" Rath replied indignantly, and even surprisingly enough, got in an innocent tone along with it. Rune suddenly paused a moment, letting out a soft "oh" and Rath took this moment to jump at him, literally, and verbally.

"Uh oh. Now Rath is going to think he's hiding something from the reaction Rune just gave him." Treisha said aloud, and watched, as a moment later, she was proved right.

"Oh, so there is something eh? Tell me!" There was a ripping sound at this point, as Rath thrust his legs through the bottom of the restraining fabric around his body, and he stood up straight to get right in his friend's face…again.

"NO." Rune yelled back at him, taking a few steps away, but Rath followed him.

"You'll have to excuse Rath's manners Treisha." Thatz was saying, and Treisha glanced over to him, not having realized he'd come to stand next to her. "I'd say he's not always like this…..but….I'd be lying." Treisha grinned, since she'd already been quite aware of that. Then when Thatz next spoke, he called his words out to Rune. "Don't tell him, Rune." Apparently Thatz had been following Rune and Rath's conversation, even while he talked to Treisha. A good multi-tasker, then again, a Dragon Knight would have to be.

"Don't worry!" Rune called back, glancing over Rath's shoulder to Thatz and Treisha. "I won't tell him about the man-eating witch!" Rath stood up straight suddenly, his eyes going wide for a moment as he froze, and Treisha heard Thatz heave a sigh.

"A man eating witch." Rath sang out happily, and Treisha saw Rune slap himself in the forehead.

"You doofus." Thatz said, as he turned his back to him. Rath was full into ranting about going off to kill his demon now, and suddenly, he whirled around to the other two and Treisha, who was raising an eyebrow at him with a grin.

"Hey, let's go kick some witchy butt!" He said loudly, his sword already held up and unsheathed, and he looked thoroughly ready to get on the road right that very second, but that's when Cesia appeared behind him and spoke, and burst his bubble.

"You can't. She's dead."

Immediately, they all froze. All their eyes turned to Cesia, and Treisha was the only one who didn't look completely shocked at this news, however, she was surprised at just how young Cesia looked. Sure, she hadn't had her transformation yet, but still, her voice sounded like she was about 16, as old as Treisha.

Suddenly, Rath had thrown himself at Cesia, tears running down his cheeks, as he demanded to know what had happened in further detail.

"Did someone get to her already?!" He shouted loudly, and Cesia held a paper up in front of her face, a small shield between her and the dragon knight.

"A one-eyed monster ate her. Here's your bill!" She said simply, and that was when Rune dragged Rath back from her.

Rath asked several more questions in quick succession, and was rewarded with the information that it was a terrible monster ravaging the Misty Valley. Treisha took this opportunity to step up beside Thatz, who seemed happy to merely observe the goings on.

"I need a few brave, handsome, strong warriors to get rid of it." Next, Cesia took on the look of an innocent young girl. "I'm in a lot of trouble! Won't you help me?" She spoke these words with a meek tone, as if slightly afraid, and posed so that her whole frame was that of a frail young lady, all of which Treisha knew to be untrue. Cesia was smart, strong and of course, beautiful, at that moment, she was just trying to persuade the knights into walking right into a trap.

"Kicking demon butt? You bet I'm in! Guys?" Rath exclaimed, and glanced over to Rune, who had his arms crossed over his chest with a reserved, slightly annoyed expression on his face, but instead of snapping, and demanding they head directly back to Draqueen, he ended up saying something very different. Rune instead agreed to taking care of this bit of business. A shocked silence fell over the other two knights at this submission, and Treisha took this silence as her moment to speak to Thatz. She needed to stop them from going. She wanted to save them from the trouble she knew they would be walking right into.

"Thatz, this isn't safe. I…..have a bad feeling about her." Treisha whispered, and Thatz nodded in a mechanical way.

"Yeah, I totally get that vibe as well. I'm gonna tell these guys too." Then Thatz glanced directly at Cesia, and spoke in a slightly nonchalant tone, and picked at a place behind his left ear. "Count me out." He said, and glanced away from her. "It's a waste of time, unless it's an order from the lord……" He added the last part almost as more of an afterthought to himself, and only Treisha caught it. "Wake me up when you're done." And Thatz walked over to a nearby table, and laid down right on the floor, Rune shouting his name in annoyance as he did so.

"Thatz?" Treisha said, for that was not what she'd been hoping for when he'd said he would tell them about the vibes he was getting from Cesia's proposition.

Thatz didn't respond to Rune or to Treisha, and instead laid his head down on a pillow that was just happened to be lying by the table. But, next to the pillow with Thatz's head on it, maybe five feet away, Treisha's eyes widened at the sight of a wrapped package. She knew exactly what it must be, and felt her heartbeat quicken slightly. It was Nadil's head, it must be. She drew closer, and even her human senses picked up a strange feeling in the air around the package. It felt strange, and for a moment, she forgot about the others standing around her. Her eyes were only on that package, and knowing that within it there lay a cold dead demon lord's head. A head that was severed from its body by the dragon lord and that would later cause a lot of trouble. Treisha was then of course, unaware that Rune's eyes were watching her draw near the package. Treisha found herself reaching out to the package to touch it, unsure of why. She knew the dangers before her fingers, but she couldn't draw away. Suddenly, Rune grabbed her hand and jerked it away. She looked up at him, the spell now broken. But he wasn't looking at her. He had already let go of her hand, and was looking at Cesia, who was talking to Thatz, and Rath's eyes were glued to them, so neither had noticed Treisha as Rune had.

"If you help me…" Cesia was saying, crossing her arms with a sly look in her eye that was lost on Thatz since he was lying on the floor with his back to the others. "…..I'll pay you."

In a mere second, Thatz had flown from the floor and was walking with Rune and Thatz, who he had grasped by the shoulders, and whirled around. Rune had grabbed up the package Treisha had been looking at, and had handed it off to Thatz, who was now carrying it slung on his back. If one of the other two had been carrying it, Treisha wouldn't have been too surprised he could touch the package without being affected, but this was Thatz, and he was human. How come it didn't affect him as it did her? To her memory, Treisha couldn't remember it ever being fully explained why the knights could carry the package and left unaffected, since other demons were affected by its powers, but they weren't.

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Thatz said loudly. "Let's get going!" Rath gave Thatz a sort of glare, and Treisha glanced over at Thatz, shaking her head. These guys…..they were just like how she had read in the books. They embodied the personalities Mineko Ohkami had given them perfectly. Perfect expressions, exclamations, and reactions. Treisha was laughing at everything they said, and was constantly smiling secret grins to herself.

Just as the four of them stepped off the steps of the diner, the three knights carrying their small packs slung on their backs, the town they'd entered earlier, along with the Tiny-Mini, disappeared at once. Immediately, they were standing in forest again. It was the same one Treisha had found herself mysteriously dropped into that morning, and the same one where she'd stumbled into the knights for the first time.

Rath and Rune both got looks of confusion on their faces, as they glanced around them. Although she remembered the reason for why this had happened, she had forgotten, and therefore hadn't seen it coming. In other words, she was as startled as the others when the street she'd had her eyes focused on had completely vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.

"Why's Misty Valley right outside?" Rath asked, wrapping his arms about himself as if it was slightly chilly, and Treisha found she agreed. There was an odd chill in the air that didn't feel right to her. She couldn't remember what it was. She knew it had something to do with the plan Cesia was concocting, the trap that Treisha had tried to stop the knights from walking into, but she could tell they wouldn't listen. Even if she tried, would she be able to alter how this book played out? Would she be able to stop any of the bad things that happened later in the series?

"Where did the town go?" Rune asked, glancing around him with curious eyes, but there was caution there too.

It was right then, that Cesia apparently decided to make her move.

"Something's changed." Treisha said suddenly, the first one to announce the shift in the air that couldn't be ignored.

"Where'd all that wind come from?" Rath said, glancing around them, something almost like worry on his face, but not quite.

"It's all good…. saves us time." Thatz said, but Treisha shook her head.

Treisha was actually worrying a little, and why? She knew what was going to happen. Suddenly, her hands went into fists. She should be telling the knights to run, that they should flee from Misty Valley. She knew nothing really bad happened there, but she worried anyway. A strange feeling was rising within her mind and body, and she couldn't exactly explain it. Nothing really bad happened in Misty Valley, and since she wasn't really part of the story, she shouldn't be able to get hurt either. But this feeling within her very being, it was strange and one she couldn't remember ever experiencing before. Treisha's worry only began to mount, as she watched the wind illusion Cesia had spun begin to form in the air behind the three knights, in such a way that they hadn't yet seen it.

"Something doesn't feel right." Rune was saying, looking around him worriedly. "Where are we?" Treisha found her throat had frozen up.

Treisha was the kind of girl who respected a person who could keep a level head in stressful situations, and therefore prided herself in the fact that she had this ability, and being able to take control of situations too. This feeling rising inside her though, she had no control over it. She didn't know how she knew this, but she did. Treisha saw the wind illusion creep up behind Rune, and finally, as Treisha finally raised a hand and pointed to behind him, she finally said what she'd been trying to utter for minutes now.

"Look." She yelled, and Rune whirled around. The wind gusted right at him, and he had to close his eyes and turn away from the intensity of it, as did the other two, and Treisha had to cover her eyes with her hands. For a few moments, the wind was so loud she couldn't hear anything. She barely picked up the muffled noise of the knights yelling to each other, but she couldn't make out their words.

Treisha took a few moments to calm her beating heart. She wasn't going to allow this feeling to control her, even if she couldn't control it. This feeling, it couldn't just be her worry about the knights and for her own life. She was in a book for God's sake! They couldn't get hurt, and therefore, neither could she. But maybe this emotion rising inside her had nothing to do with that, and had something to do with something else entirely. Treisha was unready to admit it as of right then, but she found, in some corner of her mind, she was beginning to realize that there was more of a reality to what was going on than she had thought.

"Whatever it is, let's finish it up and go home!" Said Rune and Treisha actually heard him this time. She nodded in agreement. She felt she had regained her sense of calm now, and that made her feel strong again.

"I agree with that." She replied, sounding a little breathless, but made sure there was strength and firmness in her tone too.

"Rune! Thatz! Let's bring out the dragons!" Rath interrupted them suddenly, looking at the other two. Rune and Thatz both glanced over at Treisha, as if hesitating because she was present. They were no doubt worried about placing her in danger.

"Go ahead!" She shouted, putting her hands up in front of her. She didn't know why she was so easy with the idea of them bringing out their dragons, maybe it had something to do with the fact she was as eager as hell to see them.

"I don't know about that…." Rune started, still looking at her, but then Thatz cut in.

"Rune, she knows who we are, and she'll be in even more trouble if we brought her along. Come on."

"Oh, boy!" Rune said, whirling away from her. "Stand back Treisha." He said to her, and Treisha did as he had told her.

Treisha felt her heartbeat quickening again, but it was for a different reason this time. Now she was excited. She felt pure adrenalin rushing through her veins just at the very thought of seeing their dragons. How many times had she pictured in her head what it would be like to see them? How many times had she lain in bed at night and dream about riding on one of them?

Being smart, Treisha took several steps away from the knights, and took shelter under a large tree. Here, she waited, and here, she watched, as the three dragon knights take strong stances, swords in hand.

The air changed.

Rath made the first move.

He had one hand on the sword he held in front of him, and the other hand crossed in front of his chest with the fingers tensed. He had a hard determined look on his face, as he gave a yell. "Fire dragon!!" He shouted, and boom, behind him came into view, seemingly from out of nowhere, the fire dragon. He was huge, maybe 40 feet tall and dark red. It seemed to have a jewel in its forehead that sparkled clearly in the suns rays coming from above, making its dark scales turn an even darker shade of red. Its eyes appeared to burn with an inner fire Rath seemed to share.

Rune went next. He crossed his two hands over each other, and had his sword sticking out an angle to his right. His eyes were closed, and there was an irritated look on his face, as he kept his voice even, but loud, as he summoned his own dragon. "Water dragon!!" He called, and from behind him, as with Rath, sprang up the water dragon. Its scales were a dark shining blue, and it moved with a grace amazing for a creature of its size. It seemed the calmest of the three creatures, and also seemed to radiate energy and power.

Last, Thatz took his turn.

"Earth dragon." He yelled, his sword stuck into the ground, and his hands hovering above its handle. His eyes were wide, and his voice when he called forth his dragon sounded like he was slightly nervous, as if he hadn't done this very much yet. Treisha wasn't surprised. Thatz probably hadn't been a knight very long. The last of the three, the earth dragon sprang forth behind Thatz. It slid right out of the ground it seemed. Its scales were a dark sparkling brown gold color, and its eyes seemed hard and stern, yet full of strength.

Treisha watched on in shocked awe. She had read the books over and over again, had seen this scene more times than she could count, but this was different. She was standing there, in front of three full size dragons, all almost the same height as the forest trees around them. Treisha had longed to see these dragons in person, and now she had, she felt herself frozen in the presence of their strength, power and beauty.

Treisha wasn't the only one caught up in awe at the dragons. Nearby, up in a tree, Cesia clung to a branch, slightly rattled from using her gift and loosing control of it a little bit. She watched the scene below, seeing the three boys she'd tricked into the illusionary town, call forth dragons from their swords. She mumbled three words aloud, each one fully enunciating her shock at this revelation.

"Are they…..knights?"

Right then, there was a flash of light, and a huge gust of wind that seemed to try to snap Cesia out of the tree. She clung to it, giving a gasp, as her guess was apparently confirmed. Suddenly, Cesia froze as she realized something from the sight that was playing out before her. "The knights are going the wrong way! Master will punish me!"

Meanwhile, Treisha watched what was going on in the air a good fifty feet above her in amazement and excitement. There were three dragons, and atop them road the three knights. She couldn't see very well from down on the ground, but she knew they would be wearing their fighting armor, and she could also just barely see the glare of sunlight reflect off of the metal on their bodies. Rath's armor was a dark red, Thatz's was a dark golden brown, and last, Rune's was a shimmering dark blue.

Treisha could tell the knights were distracted and that for the moment they had left her there on the ground. She suddenly felt a longing ache rise inside her chest. She also felt frustrated. She watched their dragons begin to fly forward and away from her, and she wanted to follow them, but knew she would be of no help, only someone to protect and worry about.

For a moment, she considered doing the most logical thing, and sitting down right there and waiting for the knights to return after they'd done away with the demon. She'd be out of the way, she wouldn't have to be protected or worried about, and…..Treisha stopped there and let a determined expression come to her face. She didn't know how long she'd be in this world. She could be ripped from it at anytime, and therefore, she wanted to do everything she could. She wouldn't run after the knights. She knew they would outrun her, especially on their dragons, and so instead, she would head back to where the illusionary town had been. Treisha had hoped there would be some remainder of the diner and town they had entered earlier, but no such luck. All she saw was a clearing in the forest. Treisha sagged to the ground, and then sat there, cross legged. She heaved a huge sigh.

This sucked. Every time she had pictured going into the Dragon Knights world, she had pictured herself fighting right alongside the knights but she couldn't she now realized. She had no training. In her world she'd taken a martial arts class, Kombatan, for a little over four months, but that was absolutely nothing compared to the skills of the dragon clan. This wasn't how she'd dreamed it would be.

Treisha watched the sun begin to set; quite aware that right now the knights would be attacking the one eyed monster and Cesia would be watching the whole damned thing, like Treisha wished she could be. She was so frustrated.

Of course, Treisha had forgotten something very important about what happened in the small fight with the one-eyed monster. She'd forgotten that the knights decided to try and use Nadil's head to defeat it. It wasn't till Rath had already unwrapped the package Thatz had tossed him and was holding it out in front of him, yelling, "Behold the power of Nadil's head!" that anything happened at all. For a moment, there was a pause of pure silence. But just as Cesia was calling up her powers, Rath felt power began to emanate from the head in his hands, which Rune had just cautioned him not to look at. The aura coming from the head almost appeared like flames, traveling down Rath's arm, and that's when the pause ended. Boom, the aura of energy and dark power that had been surrounding the head burst forth. In a huge stream, it struck out at the monster, but not just the one eyed creature, it also struck everything behind and around it. It began to destroy everything. It shattered many hills of the forest; it ripped up trees and flung them through the air. Cesia tried to run for cover as the total destruction of the power before her continued to lash out at all it could reach, and its reach was getting larger. Suddenly, a huge wind began to blow, and the knights worked at trying not to be blown away along with the trees. Even Treisha, miles away, felt the huge wind strike up. It swirled around her, and this is when she figured out what must have happened.

"It's Nadil's head." She had to yell aloud to be heard, even if the words were only for her ears to hear. "Damn it, I should have known. Rath is using Nadil's head to kill the one eyed monster, and taking out half the valley with it." Treisha added the last part, as she tried to hold tight to the nearest tree so she wouldn't be ripped away, and up into the sky to who knew where.

Apparently, Rath put away the head again, wrapping it up tight and cutting off the awesome power it had been unleashing, and with this action, the wind died. The knights surveyed the valley, and saw that half of Misty Valley had been blown to bits. Little did they know, that this also included Cesia's foster mother's house. Cesia looked surprised and shocked for a moment, and then a smile of happiness came to her lips instead. She clasped her hands together and said the words "thank you" aloud.

Treisha is the one who got the big shocker though. The wind had died down, and she realized Rath must have put the head away again, but this isn't all she noticed. One moment, Treisha was sitting on the ground cross legged, and the next, she was sitting in the same position, but about four feet off the ground in the middle of a dining table. She looked around her with wide eyes. She was sitting back in the diner again. Everything was as it had been earlier that day when they'd been eating there, and even the last of their plates were still sitting on the table in a circle around where Treisha sat, minus of course Rath's place, which had fallen and shattered on the floor earlier.

"Uh, that was surprising." Treisha said, giving a chuckle.

She climbed down, being careful of the dishes around her, and then began looking around, slightly confused, and then noticed what had somehow been missed by her and the knights earlier. People lay all over the place, behind the counter, by the door, everywhere. Treisha slipped out the front door, and saw people lying up and down the street, slumped and hunched over as if they had just suddenly fallen asleep. Treisha stood there a moment, on the steps of the Tiny-Mini, totally confused as to how this had come about.

When Treisha had read book one of Dragon Knights, she'd assumed when Cesia had said they were in an "Illusionary town" that that meant she had created it with her powers, so how was this town back again? How was she standing here and why was there people strewn throughout the streets?

Treisha watched in fascination, as the town's people began to rouse themselves. They pulled themselves to their feet, checking on each other and asking if each other were alright. After this was done with, since nothing in the town seemed remotely different to them, they went back to what they must have been doing before what had happened to them had….happened, whatever that was.

A few moments later, Treisha heard a familiar voice and turned to face the road coming from the direction of Misty Valley.

"Whoa, what a workout!" Thatz was exclaiming, reaching his arms above his head as he stretched.

"Let me guess," Rune asked, looking over at him, and Thatz gave him a curious look that Treisha could even see from where she stood. "You're hungry."

"How'd you know?" Thatz said loudly, and Treisha saw townspeople giving them weird looks. It seemed the knights hadn't yet realized that the town that had supposedly been illusionary was back again, and had people in it. Then again, they didn't know that it had been illusionary; they just knew that the town had disappeared when they'd left to kill the one-eyed demon. "Guys, let's go eat at the diner. I'm starved." Thatz was adding, and Treisha realized they hadn't seen her at the bottom of the Tiny-Mini's steps yet. They would any moment now though.

"Then let's get back to demon hunting!" Rath yelled, and punched him in the shoulder rather roughly, saying the word, "no" quite loudly. It was safe to say they were getting more and more strange looks from the townspeople by the moment.

A moment later, they'd drawn close enough to see Treisha, and it was Thatz who noticed her first.

"Hi there Treisha. Sorry we had to run away earlier, but we had….uh….stuff to do."

"It's fine." Treisha replied and took in their appearances. Their armor was gone, and they were dressed in their normal outfits again, well, they'd be normal outfits in this world. Treisha's outfit was probably what could be called odd. Once the knights had walked up the steps of the diner and they had reentered, they looked for a table.

Treisha saw that all the people who had been lying on the floor were now up and were bustling about as if they hadn't been unconscious a few moments before. It was a strange change. She unknowingly raised an eyebrow, still wondering about how all this worked. Why they had all been unconscious, why the town had been gone one moment, and back again the next. It didn't make sense to her. Did it have something to do with Cesia's foster mother? Treisha hardly remembered anything about her.

"Where's the girl?" Thatz was asking, looking both ways.

"I don't even know why we came back here." Rune was saying, ignoring that Thatz had even spoken, as Rune played with his blond braid. Thatz rounded on him with an expression that of shock.

"What do you mean why? For the money of course. The waitress who hired us still hasn't paid us you know." Rune waved a hand, as if dismissing the subject and Thatz looked ready to bring it up again, but for Rune's sake, that was when a waitress walked up and took them to their table, and it just happened to be the same one they'd sat at earlier. They sat down, and Thatz seemed to be looking at something in the middle of the table.

"Why is there a footprint in the middle of our table?" Thatz said aloud, and Treisha tried to stop her cheeks from reddening even just a little. Rune answered Thatz's question with a very predictable reply.

"Does it matter Thatz? Just sit down." And Rune pulled back Thatz's chair and gave him a shove so he sat down. A moment later and they gave their orders to the waitress. Treisha looked at the knights in admiration.

They had just had a fight with demons, and none of them looked tired at all. It wasn't that she had expected any less, but still….she wished so much she could do that too. Wait, she was in a dream. That wasn't possible. She had to remember that. This was all a dream, and that was it. She would enjoy it while she was here, but she had to remember not to take being there too seriously, but that feeling in her, of which had been almost overwhelming earlier was still there, within her. It somehow made her doubt her logical reasoning.

"Why are we wasting time here again?" Rune muttered just after their drinks had been brought to the table.

"Because we worked hard, and our employer isn't here to pay us, so I need a little comfort food." Thatz replied, and Rune shook his head, while Treisha gave a roll of her eyes.

Before any of them could speak again, one of two men that were sitting at a table nearby them, spoke in a tone loud enough that the knights and Treisha just happened to overhear.

"Hey, I heard the Dragon Knights defeated the man-eating witch."

Rath looked up from the tea he'd been playfully stirring sugar into for the last two minutes, listening to the words coming from the other table.

Treisha glanced subtly glanced in the same direction, and found herself surprised at the fact the news of the Dragon Knights battle had spread so quickly already.

"They're Lykouleon's top warriors, right?" Said one of the men, who had short black hair, but with brown roots. He spoke with an accent, as did his companion, of which had blond hair like a surfers, not that anyone in that world probably did much of that kind of thing. Treisha for a mere second wondered just how far from the ocean they were. In the Dragon Knights series she wasn't sure if they ever even went to the ocean. She thought that Rune might have in book six, but she couldn't remember for sure.

"They're busy lately." The man's companion replied, and then took on a thoughtful expression. "I wonder who they are."

Then the knights and Treisha stopped listening to them and started a conversation of their own instead.

"A man-eating witch?" Rune asked, looking at his fellows around the table.

"But I thought we killed the one-eyed monster…." Thatz said with a confused expression on his face that all his fellows shared.

"Right?" Rune asked again, and everyone seemed to pause a moment, and then Treisha suddenly snapped her fingers as she figured it out. All three of the knights turned to look at her, and she could tell the word going through all of their heads was "What?"

"Damn, I finally figured it out." Treisha said, a smile coming to her lips as she began to put things together in her head. It made sense now. Treisha finally opened her mouth to explain, realizing all three knights were still waiting for her to explain herself, but how was she going to explain this? It would reveal she knew what their mission was, what was in the package, and even more than that, that she knew about Cesia and the man-eating witch. Treisha would try her best not to include any revealing information.

"I figured out why the town disappeared when we first left it earlier today, and why there are people here now."

"That's a good point." Put in Rune, looking down into his drink for a moment. "We didn't even notice that the town's people were all back, unlike when it was empty when we arrived."

"You guys kidding? I knew all along." Thatz was exclaiming, and received a huge bump on his head in reply from Rune. Next, he had a glaring elf sitting next to him.

"Go on Treisha." Rune was saying, but Rath interrupted just as Treisha was opening her mouth.

"Does it have anything to do with demons?" The glee and excitement on Rath's face made Treisha give a laugh.

"Uh, not too much Rath." She said to him, and saw him frown. Then he sat back in his chair and continued to sip from his cup. Treisha was pretty sure it was tea, but she hadn't been able to tell what most of the stuff on the menu had was, and she'd been worried about asking the others for fear of rousing suspicions as to why she had to ask. "Anyway," Treisha replied, taking a breath. "When I was waiting for you guys to come back, I saw a big flash of light in the air, and a huge wind started to whip things around. Whatever happened in your guy's fight with your demon to make that stuff happen," Treisha made sure to lower her voice when she mentioned their being dragon knights. "I think it must've broken some kind of spell that had been cast over this town, the spell which apparently made the town invisible and all its inhabitants unconscious. Since you broke that spell by doing….whatever you did, the townspeople are back, and the town is seeable to all again." Treisha finished, and waited for the knights reactions. She'd taken a lot out of what she'd said, like how she knew what had broken the spell must have been the power of Nadil's head. She also knew that the spell had been broken because they'd killed the man-eating witch, other wise known as Cesia's foster mother.

"Makes sense actually." Rune mused, tapping his long fingers, along with his long elfin fingernails on the tabletop. Rune glanced over at Treisha at one point, and she could tell he was impressed. Treisha was also very glad when Rune turned away from her again, since her cheeks had gone slightly rosy. She cursed at herself.

"There weren't any demons involved, so it doesn't involve me." Rath put in, but the others seemed to ignore him, as he continued to put up the pretense of being thoroughly bored with the conversation.

"Except for one thing," Thatz was saying, and everyone looked at him. ""We didn't get paid."

And so they were back to that again.

"Yes, but also," Rune was saying in a thoughtful way, but Rath didn't seem to be listening at all anymore. "Where did the girl go?"

Treisha knew they must be talking about Cesia again, but she also remembered that they had never been formally introduced, and so therefore didn't know Cesia's name.

Since silence had fallen again, the sounds of the two men's voices they'd been listening to earlier about the man-eating witch, reached them. They listened, and this is what they said.

"Did you hear the terrible news?" Said the blond haired one to the black haired one, a note of excitement in his voice that you couldn't miss.

"The spirit of the dark swamp broke the seal!" He exclaimed loudly.

It was right here, at this moment, that Rune had just taken a swallow of his tea, and then spit it out all over the table. Thatz dropped his mug so that it shattered on the floor. Last, Rath shattered his glass by clutching it too hard in his hands while he exclaimed his excitement to the whole room. He didn't even notice the mug in his hands had shattered, as he shouted. "Alright." To everyone who was there to hear.

"RATH!" Rune and Thatz yelled at the same time, and their yell could be heard in the whole diner, on the street outside, and even in some of the stores nearby where the townspeople were getting back to work. Treisha's laughter blended in with their yells at their black haired friend, and she nearly fell out of her chair from the intensity of it. She'd known this was coming, she'd read it many times, over and over again, but she would never be able to explain how different it was too see it in person.

A lot more was to come too!

**So there you go! Another wonderful chapter and we are only a quarter of the way through book one! Let's see what happens next time. ******

**Rath: Hey, I got to fight demons this time! Only a measly one though.**

**Thatz: Hey Rath, you got to use Nadil's head, you lucky. (Sigh) I bet I could sell that for a good price. **

**Rune: THATZ! DON'T EVEN THINK OF SELLING NADIL'S HEAD. (Tries to strangle Thatz, but he uses the duplicate spell, and pops up hiding behind Rath.**

**Rath: Rune, you just want to go home and give the head to the Lord. Where's the fun in that?**

**Rune: If we loose the head, the lord will have OUR heads.**

**Thatz: (whispering to Rath) more like Alfeegi will have our heads.**

**Rath: Not Rune's, he's a little Alfeegi clone remember?**

**Rune: RATH! THATZ. **

**And Thatz's and Rath's screams echoed through the night……**

**See you later!**


	3. Chapter 3 part 1: Knights of a Feather

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Knights. I own Treisha, but all characters and such belong to Mineko Ohkami.**

**ALERT: Spoilers! There are going to be major spoilers of anything from book one through book 24.**

**Chapter three: Knights of a feather. **

Treisha yawned loudly. It was getting dark now, and she was wondering just how much longer it was going to take for them to get to the next town. They'd left the other city, which she now remembered to be called Sifinthia, behind over two hours ago, or at least she thought it was two hours. She hadn't thought to put on her watch that morning when she'd left home to meet with her friends, and besides, it was getting dark enough that it had to have been several hours.

The three knights had been walking separately for a little while now in silence, Thatz and Rath walking ahead of Treisha, and Rune walking slightly behind her. Each of them had had a short conversation with her in the last hour, but Treisha could tell that Rath and Thatz were still mad at Rune. They'd had an argument a little ways back on the road, and it was obvious what it had been about, since they really only argued about one thing these days. Going home to Draqueen, and not going home to Draqueen. As always, Rune had won in the end, but the other two were still mad at him.

Treisha glanced over to Rune, with his arms crossed over his chest. Treisha admired the pure beauty of the fairy tribe that was before her. The blond braid of hair that was golden every time the fading rays touched it. His pale skin, and his bright brilliant eyes, along with Rune's total and utter grace in everything he did. He was positively gorgeous. Suddenly, just as Treisha had let a soft grin drift to her lips, an image of Tinlet flashed into her mind. She turned her gaze away from the fairy beside her, and gave a sigh.

Rune was indeed handsome, (an understatement in itself) but he was alas, taken, by the princess of the fairy tribe, Tinlet. Treisha had had a crush on Rune from the time she had first picked up the DK series. Her favorite books were the ones with him in it, and his battles. She loved watching every time he smiled, every time he laughed, every time he spoke and let his hair blow with the wind. Every time his eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and every time he gazed into the distance in wonder.

A few moments later, they passed out of the forest, and found they'd stumbled upon what looked to be the main road they had lost a while back. You see, since the illusionary town had been gone for so long, the trails leading from it back to the main road had long overgrown, and therefore, within minutes of leaving the town of Sifinthia, the knights and Treisha had found themselves utterly lost. Now, as they walked out of the forest, and found a dirt brown beaten road beneath their tired feet, they were overjoyed!

"Yes!" Thatz said, pumping a fist into the air along his loudly exclaimed excitement. Meanwhile, Rune leaned against a tree for a moment.

"Thank god! Now we can finally get back on track for Draqueen." He said, and didn't notice how Thatz was suddenly glaring at him. "No more sleeping in the forest with bugs and rain, just soft beds and…." Thatz interrupted him.

"There's nothing good about heading back to Draqueen Rune, except for that fact that Cernozura makes fantastic meals!"

"Yo, Rune. Thatz." Treisha broke in, and saw them both glance over at her. She pointed with a finger, and the two followed to where she was motioning to. Their gazes fell onto their black haired friend, who was currently looking up at an elderly woman riding on a carriage. The old female wore a tarnished looking dress. It was an interesting array of patchwork and lace to cover up the fraying parts. She had a bonnet on her head holding back a thin gathering of brown hair. Her face had the lines and wrinkles of someone getting on in their years, but she held the reigns that she had in her hands with steadiness and the grace of someone who knew what they were doing. Currently, that woman had both eyebrows raised, and a wrinkled brow at the person who was speaking to her.

What Rath was saying was easy to hear, once Rune, Thatz and Treisha had all walked up behind him.

"Hey, do you know where any demons are?" Rath was asking urgently, and Treisha glanced over to see Rune's face go red, as he withheld his anger, but before Rune had a chance to unleash his wrath upon….well, Rath, the woman answered the question.

"Well, I suppose there is that problem in Costa Rica Village." The woman said thoughtfully, and then shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry, but that's all I know."

It was obvious Rath was like a sparkler on the 4th of July about to go off and someone was about to light his wick, when Rune came up to him, and put out Rath in a flash.

"Oh, no you don't." Rune said, grabbing Rath about the shoulders and jerking him backwards.

The carriage rode away, just as Rune was pushing his face quite close to Rath's.

"We are not going through this again, you hear me?" Rune yelled into Rath's face, who was trying to turn his head away, but it wasn't working too well. "We are returning to Draqueen, no more demons, got that?" Rune continued, and shook Rath rigorously.

"Uh, Rune….I really don't think telling him to stop will make him stop." Treisha said, peering over his shoulder, and Rune sighed after a moment of hesitation, then his shoulders sagged, and he released his black haired friend. Rath brushed himself off.

"Come on Rune." Rath said, and whirled to face Treisha, Rune and Thatz with a big grin. "We're Dragon Knights, we are sworn to protect the inccocent, and be city heroes. We can't let this village of Curu Rico continue to be ravaged by this ferocious demon, and…." Suddenly, Rath had Rune's hand covering his mouth.

"Rath, watch it. Don't talk about who we are in the open!" Rune whispered harshly to Rath, and Treisha smiled.

"And by the way Rath," Treisha said to him, and both boys glanced at her. "It's not Curu Rico, its Costa Rica Village."

Both boys just stood there a moment, not speaking, and then Thatz shook his head from side to side.

"You've got a good memory on you Treisha."

They stood in silence for a few moments, and Treisha looked from side to side. She could tell that the others were trying to figure out what they should do. Treisha knew at this point where they all stood, and she was just happy to follow after them wherever they decided to go.

"Okay, fine." Rune finally exclaimed. "We'll go, but stop staring at me alright?" It was true, Rath and Thatz had both been looking at him sideways, and apparently Rune had finally given in to the pressure.

So they turned right to head toward Costa Rica village.

Treisha slowly began to remember what awaited them where they were going. Costa Rica Village was having a demon problem. A feather given to them by the dragon lord to protect their village had been stolen by a demon, and hidden away in a cave, and that was all Treisha could remember. She was finding that only the basics of the first books were coming to mind. She could remember very clearly what happened at volume 11 and up, because that was when things got serious, but now? Everything was so fluffy, and happy, and so therefore the memories of the events that happened were less clear in her mind.

It was just after sunset that they arrived in Costa Rica Village. Immediately, they sought out an Inn to stay the night in, and this is when Treisha realized she had a problem. She had no money of which to pay for a place to stay, or food. Back in Sifinthia, the knights had paid for her meal, but Treisha couldn't expect them to continually do that all the way to the Dragon Kingdom. If only she knew how to fight, and then she could pull her own weight. But she couldn't, and she couldn't ask the knights to teach her now, not while they were on the road, and carrying Nadil's head. Treisha would get her training when she arrived at Draqueen, to the castle, but that was a long ways off, probably months seeing as it would be several books away. But what could Treisha do? She needed money, and she couldn't take up stealing….it just wasn't her.

She gave a heavy sigh, and turned her eyes toward the Inn they were approaching. It was one of the smaller ones; in fact, the whole village of Costa Rica wasn't that large, not compared to Sifinthia for sure.

They stepped over the threshold of the Inn's entrance, and took a look at the room around them. The room was quite plain, and mostly empty, containing only a door opposite her leading to the other side of the building, a staircase on the right wall, and on the left, a desk with a man sitting behind it drinking from a metal flask. He looked worn and completely bored with his job. When the knights and Treisha walked up to the desk, it took a couple moments for the man to notice they were there, and that he had customers.

"I need two rooms please sir." Rune said, and Treisha wasn't surprised he was the one to do the talking, there was no doubt in Treisha's mind as to what would have happened had Rath or Thatz tried getting them rooms. It wouldn't have worked.

The man hardly glanced at them, and immediately

"Fine." The man mumbled, and he began to slowly run a finger down a list that sat on the desk in front of him. "Two 15's, for two rooms." He ended up saying, and then after a moment, he slipped his hand under the desk, producing two keys a second later of which he slapped down the desk surface. In response, Rune took out a few coins from a small black bag he had tied to his belt, and removed a few coins, which he then set down on the desk next to the keys. The man grabbed the coins, and Rune grabbed the keys. He handed one key to Treisha, and slipped the other in his pocket. Next, without any kind of directions to their rooms other than the numbers engraved on their keys, the knights and Treisha headed up the staircase that was set into the right side of the building. They went upstairs, and five minutes later, the knights were slipping into their room.

"I still don't see why we can't eat first." Thatz was whining as he slipped into the room with a yawn.

"Because I'm too tired, and I don't want you waking me up when you come back at midnight or later." Rune snapped at him, leaning against the door for a moment as Rath entered the room too, and Treisha just glimpsed the special "package" that Rath was carrying slung on his back.

"Goodnight Treisha." Rune said to her, and then two echoing, "Night Treisha's" came from the room behind Rune, who then softly closed the door. Treisha slipped into her own room, and sighed against the door once it was shut.

This was her first night in this world, and she wouldn't admit it, didn't want to admit it, but she worried that going to sleep might make her pop back into her own world again, right back into that manga shop. She didn't want to return there yet, its not that she didn't like her life there, not at all. She loved her family, and her friends, and her classes, and her life! (Well, maybe not the fact that she was boyfriendless) She just loved this world so much, had dreamed about it so many times, and that just it, she didn't want it to be a dream. She didn't want to climb into this soft bed with blankets and pillows that was four feet from where she stood, because if she did, she might wake up from this wonderful dream, and this world might disappear, as easily as the town of Sifinthia had reappeared.

Abruptly, an image entered her mind of the dragon lord and lady. They both sat at a long table that was covered in different dishes and extravagant platters. Treisha could see the dragon lord laughing with Ruwalk, and holding the hand of his queen, Raseleane, who was having a soft conversation with Cernozura. Sitting at the rest of the table, were the dragon officers and fighters, all eating and talking, and laughing and joking. The image slowly faded from Treisha's mind. She wanted to see the rest of this world so badly, see if she could help, she just wanted to explore this place, to serve the dragon lord and his queen, and she wasn't going to let her fear of sleep keep her from that.

Treisha strutted across the room with a purposeful stride, and after she had removed her shoes, climbed into the bed, to find herself surprised on how comfortable it was. She had expected it to be hard, and rough, since she was in a totally different time period than her own, but had been wrong, as she had been several times now, and probably would be again. Treisha closed her eyes, letting her feet finally relax after such a long day of walking. Treisha finally let her mind drift, and she fell asleep.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Treisha shot up in bed with a startle! She glanced around her, and then realized someone had knocked on her door, but before she could move to answer it, she heard voices at her door, but it quickly became obvious they weren't talking to her.

"THATZ!" Rune yelled, hurting Treisha's ears. "Treisha is sleeping, banging on her door is not a good idea. It's barely after dawn!"

"Hey, you're the one yelling at the top of your lungs dude." Treisha heard Rath reply, and Treisha finally rose from bed, and moved to the door.

Treisha opened it, just as she heard a clatter. Immediately, Treisha jumped backwards, as Rath fell into her room. Treisha looked up, to see a surprised Rune standing with a unsheathed sword raised. Apparently Rune had had Rath pinned to her door, only to then have Treisha open it, and have Rath fall out of his hold, and into Treisha's room.

"Uh….hi." Treisha said, looking down at Rath, who was looking back up at her, appearing puzzled. A second later, and Rath had lunged to his feet.

"Good morning!" He said loudly, and then Thatz and Rune were shushing him again, as they both entered her room.

"Morning Treisha!" Thatz greeted her, and Treisha nodded, rubbing her eyes.

"Hi guys." She said with a yawn, and stretched her arms above her head. "Is there a reason you're all up so early?"

"What do you think it is?" Rune said with a heavy sigh, just as Thatz said.

"Food of course, since Rune didn't let us eat dinner last night!" And Thatz sent a hard glare sideways at the fairy that just ignored him, and crossed his arms over his chest, and this is where Treisha realized the bundle that Rune had tucked under his arm.

"What is that?" She asked, pointing, and he removed the bundle from under his arm. He held it out to her.

"It's a new outfit, and…." His friends cut him off right there.

"Your outfit is strange here Treisha," Said Thatz. "Your outfit is also dirty."

CRASH! And Rune has dropped a large stone right on Thatz's head. Thatz goes into a crouch, making little groans and moans, of which everyone else just ignores.

"Please excuse him Treisha." Rune said to her, and she just nodded to him. "He can be an idiot some days."

Rath gave a laugh, but Rune immediately whirled on him.

"Keep in mind that I often have to excuse you as well, because you are quite frequently as out of line as he is, Rath!"

"Okay, okay already." Rath said, putting his hands up in front of him, as some kind of protection, not that it would have done him any good.

"Anyway," Rune said, turning around and straightening out his clothing, and picked up the clothing he'd dropped in his attack on Rath. He handed it to Treisha, and she accepted it. "Also, if you want to wash up there is a place to do that down the hall. After you've finished, you can go downstairs, turn in your key, and join us to eat breakfast down the street. Look for a small place with a red door, and green steps." Treisha nodded, and then thanked them, and after that the knights left her room.

Treisha did as Rune had suggested. She walked down the hall, and quickly found where he'd been talking about. She slipped inside the door, and within, found a bathtub full of hot water. It looked more enticing to Treisha than a bath had ever looked to her before. After all the hiking in the woods with the knights the day before, she had gotten so dirty, so tired and achy, that she hadn't realized just how desperate for a wash she actually was.

Treisha shed her clothing, starting with her brown velvet pants, followed by her black halter top. Next, she slid off all her mutli colored bracelets she had around her wrists, and then her one silver ring she wore on her right hand, of which had the words engraved: "To thine own self be true." This ring her mom had given to her, and all her rubber bracelets were a gift her friends and her shared. Her group of friends all wore 6 bracelets, as she did, and each one had the names of the rest of the group on them. This was their bond of friendship.

After Treisha had shed off everything, she went over to the bath, and slid in slowly. It felt so good, slightly scalding, but still fantastic. She just let herself bathe in the wonderful feel of it, let herself totally relax, and then she remembered her worries of the night before. She'd been worried of going to sleep because she might wake up in her own world, and find that this one had indeed been all a dream. A grin came to Treisha's lips, and a feeling rushed through her veins all at once. The idea that she'd been in this world for so long, had gone to sleep, and woken up and still been here…it couldn't be a dream could it? The idea that she slipped into a alternate dimension was slowly looking more and more likely now.

After a while, Treisha washed her hair. She found they didn't have bottles of shampoo like her world did, but they had this small dish with a liquid in it, which she knew had to either be soap, or shampoo, either way it would work. She washed her hair, and then she rinsed it out, and rinsed her body of any dirt the hot water might have missed. At long last, Treisha forced herself to rise out of the water. She climbed out of the tub, and nearly lost her balance stepping over the edge. She paused once she had both feet on the ground.

"Clumsy." She mumbled to herself, and then froze. She hated that word, "clumsy." And she most definitely didn't want to have anything to do with that word here. For a moment, Treisha glanced toward the curtained window across the room from her. She moved to it, and peeked out at the city beyond.

"Far from here is Draqueen," Treisha thought to herself, watching the world outside the window. "I am going to go there, and I will become a dragon fighter. I will not be clumsy. I will prove myself, that I am strong, and that I am not weak."

Treisha dried off, and got dressed. She quickly found out that she'd been given quite a plain outfit, but it was obvious that it would fit into this world much better than her own clothes would. The only thing she however was not happy about was the fact they'd given her a skirt instead of breeches! How was she to travel with them, hike through woods, and run from demons, (She'd rather fight them of course, but that wasn't the case in her life just yet) if she was wearing A SKIRT? She sighed irritably, and then slipped her shirt over her head. It turned out she wore an outfit of a simple green long sleeve shirt, along with a thin forest green skirt with more pockets in it than she ever thought anyone would need. Then Treisha found out they'd given her shoes, and she immediately decided the shoes made up for the skirt. The shoes she'd been given were knee high boots of a green shade. (green again!) It also had black laces that wrapped around her legs from ankle to her knee, which kept the boot on. She slipped into them, and immediately decided she loved them She had often admired the outfits from the DK series, but she had especially loved their boots! She now owned a pair of her own.

"Thanks Rune." She muttered to herself, as she finished putting the last boot on. Treisha got to her feet, and after slipping her bracelets and ring back on, grabbed up her discarded clothes, and headed back to her room. It was hardly 10 seconds after she'd left the bathing room that Treisha reentered, having forgotten her key. She grabbed it off the stool sitting next to the bath, and left again.

"Damn it." She mumbled. "I am not going to be forgetful either."

Treisha went back to her room, (Now having her key) and slipped inside. She immediately noticed something on the chair next to the door, and went to take a look at it. She found it was a back pack, or what was very close to one, but a bit larger, and made of a different material, something closer to suede, but not quite. Treisha smiled, knowing Rune must have left it for her, and then stuffed her clothing in it. She would have to find some way of getting money, someway of paying them back for getting her room and board at night like this. She couldn't expect them to do it for her every night all the way to Dusis. After her pack was filled, Treisha left the room behind. She went down the stairs, and headed to the front desk. It was the same man as the night before.

"Hello sir, and good morning." Treisha said to him, and began to pull the key from her pocket. She held it out to him, but he didn't take it. Instead, the man looked closely at her, seemingly bored, and scanned her up and down.

Earlier, Treisha would have guessed he was doing this because of her strange clothing, but she wasn't wearing anything strange now. The only thing she could guess this was connected to, was her voice. She probably had a strange accent here, compared to the other townspeople. Treisha blocked out a blush threatening to come to her face. Blushing would be a stupid thing to do at a time like this, and it would make her look vulnerable, two things she didn't want to appear. Instead, Treisha stood up straight, and tried to make her shoulders look broader, and her stature one of strength. She spoke to the man.

"Here is the key to my room sir."

The man didn't reply for several moments, and still didn't take her key form her. Treisha took a breath, and snapped her fingers in front of the mans face.

"Excuse me sir, but I don't like talking to a brick wall." Treisha hadn't wanted to do that, but she needed him to see she wasn't meek. The man looked her in the face immediately, appearing surprised, and then he gave a heavy bored sigh again.

"Fine." He mumbled, and he took the key from her hand and slid it under the desk again, and then he immediately looked down again, as if she wasn't standing there anymore. Treisha nodded. She knew she'd been dismissed, and she never had done well with dismissals, but then again, she also had never been very good at getting mad at adults. Besides, what was the point anyway?

"Learn to pick your battles." Treisha thought to herself, and then turned and walked out of the Inn and back onto the street outside.

Treisha found herself glad she hadn't needed to pay yesterday, even if she had had the money to do so. Treisha had realized only moments ago, that she didn't know how this world's currency worked. It could have gotten her in trouble last night, and making up a plausible lie as to why she didn't know money worth would have been very complicated, and messy up very easy to do.

The sun shown down on Treisha and warmed her back. It felt good. After bathing, and putting on different clothing, and the sun now warming her back nicely, Treisha felt refreshed and relaxed. Even though she felt like this though, she made sure to always try and keep her senses open to her surroundings.

Sure, she'd grown up going to outdoor adventure camps, and yeah, she'd taken several classes in a couple different martial arts, but still…she knew that this world was totally different from her own. She had to remember that.

Treisha kept a good eye out for the restaurant Rune had described to her earlier that morning. Eventually, she did find a restaurant with a red door and green steps. She walked up these steps, and pushed open the door, and immediately, was blasted with the sweet scents of food. She now realized how utterly hungry she was. Her stomach growled as she stepped inside and let the door swing close behind her.

Treisha was actually surprised the knights had left her alone at the Inn, then again, she wasn't their responsibility. So of course they would allow her. So far, they had only protected her because she was a civilian, and that was part of their job. But….she wanted to become more than that, she wanted to become the kind of warrior that could fight alongside them, instead of having to always be defended or left behind so she'd remain safe.

Treisha glanced around her at the diner, and she needn't have worried about trying to find the knights. As soon as the door had closed behind her, she spied Thatz standing up next to his table. (As were Rune and Rath) They apparently weren't really bothering anyone else, because like Sifinthia had been, the diner was mostly empty. Suddenly, Treisha saw Thatz point right at her, and yell at the top of his lungs:

"You go instead of her, in drag!" Treisha froze mid-step, and saw Thatz do the same, and then the brown haired boy swiveled on his feet, so that he was facing Rath. "Uh, I meant you." Thatz said, pointing at Rath now.

"What the?" Rath exclaimed, his eyes big, and looking at Thatz as if he was a moron and Rune just looked down, sweat drops appearing next to his head in midair. Treisha raised an eyebrow, as she wondered to herself what they must be talking about. She came over to their table, and sat down in the fourth empty seat, of course, at that point all the seats were empty. Did the knights ever spend a whole meal sitting at the table? She couldn't remember.

"Well," Said Thatz, looking toward the ceiling with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I'm not going, and Rune is such a girlie girl, he's already like a woman. And Treisha can't go because she doesn't have any fighting training."

"Fine, I'll do it." Rath said, taking Thatz by the shoulders and a determined look coming to his face.

"Really?" Thatz exclaimed in happiness, excitement, and last, surprise.

Meanwhile, Rune sat back down across the table from Treisha.

"Weirdo's." He muttered, and pulled his drink toward him, which Treisha was positive this time was some kind of brandy.

"You said it." Treisha replied to him, and Rune smiled, as if relieved to be talking to her instead of Rath or Thatz. Treisha sat there for a few moments in silence. Suddenly, and without really thinking about it, Treisha touched Rune's hand, and said: "Oh, and thanks for the clothing by the way, as well as the back pack. And for the room last night and for the food yesterday and this morning." The list hadn't seemed so long, until she'd said it out loud, and now she felt selfish for them having given her so much, and that she'd given them almost nothing in return." Rune smiled at her, and put his other hand on top of hers. When Rune's hand touched Treisha's, she felt her breath catch for a moment. His skin felt warm and comforting to her flesh, making her shiver with warmth, and get goose bumps at the same time, and then Rune took his hand away.

"As dragon knights, doing good things for people is what we do Miss Treisha." And he looked away from her, and Treisha glanced away from him.

She was not going to allow herself to blush. It made you look young, weak, and vulnerable, and she didn't like to be taken as any of those.

"Are the new clothes alright?" Rune asked her a moment later, and Treisha found herself nodding.

"Yes, thanks. It's nice to feel I fit in a bit better now."

"They look quite nice." He replied, and then moved on, which was a good thing, since Treisha was fighting her very hardest to keep her cheeks a normal color. "And I trust it wasn't that difficult to find your way here?" Rune asked her a moment later, glancing over to her, and it was obvious he was trying his best to ignore the two other boys talking several feet away.

"It was easy, especially since this town is so small." Treisha replied, and began to nibble at the rolls in the middle of the table, and to take a drink of the tea the knights had apparently ordered for her while she'd been gone.

"Similar to Sifinthia." Rune mused, and took another swig of his drink.

"I don't think it's illusionary though." Treisha replied with a bright grin, of which Rune returned, and then, even if he had been trying to ignore them, Treisha and Rune caught a bit of the conversation taking place several feet away, and glanced over.

"But you can't go in that clothing, or the demon will surely know you aren't a girl." Said a young black haired girl, who stood over a foot shorter than Rath was, of which she had been speaking to. "Here." The little girl said, and suddenly she disappeared into the back room.

"That's Pyore Treisha." Rune said, motioning to the girl who appeared little more than 13 as she came back in the room. She wore a wrap around skirt the color of the leaves in fall, and a white shirt long sleeve shirt that had a crisscross fabric crossing over her chest, and her back, of which was decorated with red roses. Pyore's black hair fell far past her shoulders, but was currently tied up with what looked to be the same fabric that crisscrossed her chest. Two black bangs fell on the sides of her face, and they flew back behind her, as Pyore went up to Rath again, and gave him a pile of fabrics. Next, she grabbed his arm, and led him into a back room. They waited only moments, before Rath returned.

"Ta da!" Rath exclaimed, sweeping back in to the room, and twirling in a circle to show off his outfit. Treisha gave a giggle. Rath had on a gray dress over his black long sleeved shirt, and a skirt on that very obviously had several layers of different colors and shades, and last, Pyore had apparently somehow found a long black wig for Rath to wear, which looked perfect on him, and very natural, in fact, the whole outfit looked natural on him.

"How do I look? Nice apron dress, huh?" Rath asked his two friends, and Rune and Thatz's reactions to Rath's outfit were the same. They both collapsed to the floor with a thud, and Treisha was turning away to hold in her overwhelming laughter. Pyore? Pyore just looked happy with her work. "What do you think Treisha?" Rath said suddenly, whirling around to look at her. Treisha looked into his eyes, with that light red color, which seemed to have a slightly gold tint that made them elegant. Treisha put on a poker face; after all, she had always been good at hiding her emotions when she needed to, most of the time anyway.

"Very becoming!" Treisha said to him, and Rath whirled away from her to face the others again, his excitement reaching even higher heights. Treisha put her head in her hands with a snort of laughter.

"I'm going instead of Pyore…..which means I can kick butt all by myself!"

"He's really into the part." Pyore said to Thatz, Rune and Treisha, who had gotten to her feet and come over to stand next to them.

"A bit." Thatz and Rune said at the same time to Pyore, trying to ignore Rath, but it wasn't working very well. Even on a normal day, Rath was hard to ignore, then again, was any day in the dragon knights world normal?

"He always is." Treisha replied, and then looked away immediately. She was glad when she realized that none of the other three had heard her. She had to keep a watch on what she said.

"Later, guys!" Rath was suddenly saying loudly, and waved as he headed toward the door. Rune whirled on him, and yelled after his friend before he could reach the door.

"Work on your voice first! You'll be soup if they find out!"

"Gosh, I know that, honey." Rath replied, and winked at Rune as Rath grabbed the doorknob, a bang resounding as Rune hit his head against the wall in what must have been frustration and exasperation. "I'll bring you dinner, Pyore!" Rath said, glancing over his shoulder at the young girl, and then he was out the door.

"He's an idiot." Rune said, closing his eyes as he played with his blond braid.

"You're right." Thatz replied, nodding his head.

"It was your idea Thatz." Treisha told him, and he shook his head from side to side.

Meanwhile, Pyore stood staring the door that Rath had just left through. Her eyes were bright, and the hope in her eyes was something nobody could miss.

"He dressed in drag for our village? My hero!" Pyore said, gazing after Rath, knowing that if he hadn't gone to the demons lair, she would have.

"Rath is always running off into his little demon world, isn't he?" Treisha asked, and Rune nodded exasperatedly. Thatz glanced over to Pyore, still staring at the door.

"She's in her own world, too…." He said, and Treisha and Rune glanced over, and then nodded.

"Oh, I just realized!" Thatz said loudly, and whirled around so he could get a clear look at Treisha. "You changed into the new clothes! You look great!" He said cheerfully, and Treisha nodded her thanks.

"Oh, by the way," she started, and both seemed to give her their full attention because of the strange tone she was using. "Can somebody explain to me what is going on? Why is Rath leaving for a demon lair in drag? What feather are we talking about? Can we please fill me in?"

The two knights glanced at each other, and then they both gave a chuckle.

Treisha found she just couldn't remember this chapter very well. She was only remembering small parts and fractions of it, but not everything, so she thought she would keep up the charade of ignorant townsperson by asking the knights to explain it to her.

Rune told her it all.

"When we got here this morning, we were told about a place called the "Dark Swamp" that lies near here. A demon lives there." Rune paused to tell Thatz to pay attention so he could help fill Treisha in, and then went back to talking. "Pyore said a talisman, called the "Phoenix feather" given by the Dragon lord to Costa Rica Village sealed away the demon of the Dark Swamp many years ago."

"But apparently," Thatz broke in to say. "A month ago a man came and stole away the feather, and the spirit returned." And Thatz made a spooky "Ohhhh" noise, which got him a punch in the nose from Rune, who had an expression of disgust on his face.

"I can't believe someone would come and steal away something the lord gave to this village. How rude!" He shook his head, and then went on. "Anyway, Rath had to make this big show about he came here to kill the demon and how he wanted to throw himself into danger immediately like he always does….and…"

"They even said there was a reward, but….they couldn't afford it." Thatz said, whining, but Rune ignored him.

"You care about that more than the fact most of the men in this village were flayed because they tried to get this feather back?" Rune asked him, and Thatz shrugged.

"No money? I'm not interested, unless the order or mission came from the lord, and then that's different." He said, and then leaned back in his chair, an obvious motion for Rune to continue, and he did.

"Apparently this place accepts girls. They ask for one every now and then and each one that goes doesn't return. Pyore was next, but Thatz suggested Rath go instead of her in drag, and that is where you, Treisha came in, and Thatz accidentally pointed to you."

"I didn't mean to alright? She just walked in, and I pointed to her. My senses were confused."

Just then, Pyore came back into the room. (Nobody having realized she left) and in her hands was a plough. She was walking toward the door, when she veered toward their table instead.

"I'm sorry we ran out of food and don't have anymore to offer you." Pyore said, and Treisha realized that must be why they hadn't yet bothered to come by and get her order. "I have to go out and do some work now, but if you need anything you can just ask my aunt and uncle who are in the back room."

And then she headed toward the door, and just as she passed through it, Thatz got to his feet.

"You know what? I'm going to go with her and help. It's the least I can do since we eat all their food." He said, and was already halfway to the door, when Rune called out to him.

"Thatz, get back here. You're only going to cause her trouble. Thatz!" But the earth knight was already out of sight, and the door was swinging shut behind him.

**To be continued in chapter three, part two……**


	4. Chapter 3 part 2: Knights of a Feather

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Knights. I own Treisha, but all characters and such belong to Mineko Ohkami.**

**ALERT: Spoilers! There are going to be major spoilers of anything from book one through book 24.**

**Chapter three: Knights of a feather, part 2. **

Rune and Treisha sat in silence for a few moments, and Treisha realized she was nervous. She didn't care for silences, and especially uncomfortable ones like this one. She wasn't sure what to say though, and she was pretty sure he was about as uncomfortable as she was.

"You know what," She finally said, getting to her feet, and saw his gaze whirl around to her. "I am going to go see if I can help with anything in the back, from her….aunt and uncle." And Treisha headed into the back, and once she'd passed through the curtain separating the diner from the back room, she looked around. She didn't see anybody, so she gave a knock on the wall. Immediately, a person got up from where they'd apparently been kneeled down behind a work desk.

"You must be Pyore's uncle?" Treisha asked, moving toward the man, and he nodded a kind grin came to his face.

"Yes, that would be me, and you would be Treisha, right?" Treisha's eyes widened in surprise, and Pyore's uncle gave a light chuckle.

"How did you know?" Treisha asked him.

"Well, you and your friends aren't exactly quiet my dear." He replied to her brightly, and she rolled her eyes, seeing the logic in the mans words. "So, how can I help you Miss Treisha?"

"Oh, well, my friend is heading to the Dark Swamp to retrieve the Phoenix Feather, and one of my other friends is helping Pyore outside, so I was wondering if I could help out in some way too. Some work or something?"

The man looked thoughtful for a moment, as he pursed his lips.

"I think I can come up with something." He said, and then motioned for Treisha to follow him, as he led her toward a back door. They exited through it, and outside he rounded a corner, and pointed to a pile of baskets. "Why don't you grab up a couple of those, and follow me." He said, and Treisha did. She grabbed up three of the huge baskets, and then followed Pyore's uncle away from the diner, until Treisha finally realized he'd lead her to a apple orchard. No apples were on the trees yet, but their blossoms were blooming.

"The job I have for you is to please stand on the ground while your kind friend back there climbs into the tree and gathers all the blossoms and gives them to you to put in the baskets. And then please carry those baskets back to the diner." Treisha glanced behind her quickly, and saw that Rune had trailed up behind her.

"But sir, why take off the blossoms? You won't get any apples that way." Treisha asked the man curious as to why he would rid the apple orchard of their precious flowers.

"My name is Deskle, dear girl, and the reason for this job is because it is believed that these blossoms bring good luck to a village if they are removed in the season of spring."

Treisha nodded, realizing that the villages of this world probably had a lot of superstitions like this one. She'd have to remember the ones she learned, since that might make the lie she came from this world more believable.

"I'll leave you two to get started then." Said Deskle, and then moved away from them. "Thanks for the help." He called to them as he waved, and then disappeared back inside the diner. Rune turned to her, and smiled.

"Well, I think we should get started. Who knows how long it will take for Rath to finish his demon hunting and get back here." Rune gave a chuckle, and then went to the tree, and grabbed the closest limb. He stepped up, and as if using pure strength, he gracefully hauled himself up into the tree. The way in which the water dragon knight did this, showed off the power and strength of both the dragon clan, and of the fairy tribe. Treisha stood there a few moments, watching Rune climb up into the tree without any effort, and it wasn't until Rune called down to her that she realized she should be working.

"Treisha, these blossoms are going to fall on the ground if you don't pick up a basket." Rune said to her, and Treisha, coming out of her momentary daze, grabbed up a basket and moved toward the tree, and then they began.

They might have spent hours out there, or maybe it was shorter, Treisha wasn't sure. Treisha would hold up the basket and Rune would drop all the blossoms that he could reach into it, and he could reach almost anywhere in that tree. It seemed his elfin abilities made it so he could stand on even the smallest of tree limbs. It amazed Treisha, but she tried to keep her awe to herself. She wasn't supposed to know he used to be an elfin prince.

At one point, Treisha gave a heavy sigh, as she took the third basket back to the diner, and came back carrying three more.

This was tiresome work. Its not that she was exhausted and didn't want to do it anymore, it was that it was EASY! Hauling flowers from the apple orchard to the diner was no effort at all. She wanted to be up in the tree, getting the blossoms and putting them in the basket. But she was a girl, and no doubt having a girl do hard work was not something women did here.

Treisha made her way back to the tree with three baskets, and when she set them down next to the tree, and then raised one of them into the air to catch more blossoms, she sighed again. Rune paused in his work.

"Are you alright Treisha?"

"Oh, I'm fine and dandy!" Treisha hadn't meant the words to be sarcastic, but that's how they had come out. She didn't think Rune would trade jobs with her. Girls from this world just didn't do mans work….or a fairies work in this case.

"No, I don't believe you." He said, and Treisha was surprised when Rune climbed down from the tree and then jumped down to the ground with hardly a sound. "What's wrong? Are you tired? We can take a break if you like." He said to her, and she shook her head from side to side. She hadn't planned on telling him, but she might as well now. He knew something was wrong, she should answer him.

"This work is just kind of easy, and I'd much rather the tree climbing….but that's not a ladies work here is it?" Rune shook his head at her, and Treisha nodded. So she had been right.

"Are you saying you'd like to trade jobs Treisha?" He asked her, and Treisha whirled her gaze back to him from where she'd been picking up her basket again.

"You wouldn't mind?" She asked him, for she really wanted to get up into the tree, and get away from the carrying of the baskets!

"Well, you were right when you said women don't do that kind of thing here." He said to her, and it seemed he was hesitating. "Do you think you can handle it?" He asked, and Treisha knew he didn't know what he'd just done. Now she had to do it. She needed to show him she wasn't like the other women here and could do hard work men usually did, and that was it! Women from this world didn't usually do mans work, but Treisha wasn't from this world, was she?

"If you give me a chance, I'll show you." Treisha said to him, and after a moment, Rune nodded.

Treisha smiled, and thanked him as she turned toward the tree. She grabbed a limb, and thought of all her days as a child climbing trees, and of scampering across trees that had fallen across forest creaks. Treisha had to take this chance to show Rune that she wasn't just a woman. She was strong too, and could handle the hard work.

Rune gave a light giggle, and with that sound, Treisha's heart lightened considerably.

Treisha hauled herself up into the tree, and then up again, until she was high in the tree and to the point where Rune had left off. Here, she turned around, and made sure she was in a good spot, and sat down, with her feet dangling below her. Then she began to reach for all the apple blossoms that were within range of her grasping hand. Her reach wasn't nearly as big as Rune's had been, and she couldn't balance on as skinny limbs as he had, but she could do other things. She could get her work done fast for one, and for another she never needed a break, never complained, and did the work without mistake. Treisha could tell that Rune was impressed, and she felt a warm feeling deep inside herself at this revelation.

Eventually, Treisha noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She glanced over to the side, and saw, maybe 40 feet across the apple orchard from herself, and in a different kind of orchard, (she couldn't tell what kind) was Thatz and Pyore. Thatz was lying in a pile of hay, while Pyore ploughed, and at one point Thatz lunged to his feet and took over the work for Pyore. Apparently he was showing her how to do it, and in the process just did the whole job for her. Rune, apparently having noticed Treisha's pause in their work, glanced toward where her concentration had been distracted too.

"He's probably messing up her work by doing that for her." Rune said, and Treisha nodded, going back to her blossom picking.

A couple moments later, while Rune was making yet another one of his many, many basket trips to the diner, (Rune looks very elegant with flowers!) Thatz flew into sight at a full run. He ran at Rune, and Treisha, from her perch in the tree still, watched as the earth dragon knight ambushed the water one. Thatz grabbed Rune's hand, and yelling something to him that Treisha couldn't hear, he dragged Rune toward the city road that lay on the other side of the restaurant. Treisha could just barely see a bundle of clothing being carried in Thatz's arms, and made a good guess at what it must be. She might not remember a lot about the first few books, but she did remember this part. Rune and Thatz both dressed in drag and went to the Dark Swamp. (Thatz having just found out from Pyore that the whole place contained the treasure from Costa Rica and other villages!)

As Thatz dragged him along, Rune accidentally dropped the large basket of blossoms he'd been carrying. The basket fell to the ground, scattering the blossoms. Treisha watched for a moment as Thatz and Rune passed out of sight, and even saw Rune send a single glance back at her, and then they were both gone. Treisha dropped out of the tree, a little less soundlessly than Rune had, and then made her way back over to the restaurant. She leaned over, and began to put the blossoms back into the basket.

She sighed heavily.

Treisha was irritated once again that she'd been left behind. She hadn't minded as much when only Rath had gone off, but now that the other two knights had joined him, it made Treisha feel even more useless and weak than she had before. And as she had done before back in Sifinthia when the knights had flown off on their dragons, Treisha considered following them, and then decided against it just as she had before. She did indeed want to go, and dress in drag with them, and retrieve the phoenix feather for the village, but she knew she hadn't the training necessary for such a venture.

Treisha sighed again, and then looked up in surprise when she saw Pyore lean down to help put the last of the blossoms back into the basket.

"Thank you for helping with the chores." Pyore said with her young girly voice. "As you can see, ever since our feather was stolen the village has become poor, and a lot of the townspeople have fled to other towns." A sad grin came to Pyore's lips that seemed to hold more sorrow than a 13 year old girl should have to experience. "But I believe in your three friends. I believe they will bring back our feather, and save our village."

Treisha nodded her head, smiling to Pyore.

"I agree with you Pyore." She said, and then rose to her feet with the basket in her arms. "I want to get the apple blossom job done. Do you mind helping me?" Pyore nodded her head in earnest, and so the two of them made their way back over to the orchard, and to where Rune and Treisha had left off in their work. "So, is the apple blossom tradition just something your family does, or is it a village custom?"

A sad grin came to Pyore again as Treisha set down the basket, and climbed back up into the tree.

"It's actually something my cousin told me about, but she lives very far from here, with her father and mother." Pyore said, and Treisha glanced over her shoulder to where the girl still stood on the ground. Treisha felt she should know who the cousin was. "My cousin told me about the apple blossom custom that her village has, and slowly, that custom became one here too." Suddenly, Pyore turned looked right up at Treisha, and said, "Actually, you kind of remind me of Kuon Sheena."

And so it came to her. Kuon Sheena, Pyore's cousin. That was who Pyore went to stay with later in the series, (Was it volume 14?) and who fell in love with Nadil. Kuon Sheena, Pyore thought she reminded her of Treisha?

Treisha turned back to her work so Pyore would not see the look on her face.

"In what way, Pyore?" Treisha asked, and began reaching for the blossoms again.

"Well, Kuon Sheena is a very calm person, and she always makes it look like she's happy, but sometimes it's not that way." Said Pyore as she lifted the basket above her head to catch the blossoms Treisha was sending down to her. "Kuon Sheena holds a sadness that I don't understand, and she hides it from others….and I saw that same sadness in you when you watched you three friends walk away from here."

Treisha froze at these words. Pyore had noticed her feelings, merely from the way Treisha had gazed off after the knights? How could Pyore see her feelings that she was trying to conceal so her lie wouldn't be uncovered? Treisha felt a ache rising in her chest again, but she shook her head to rid herself of it.

"Kuon Sheena sounds like a very lonely person." Treisha replied absent mindedly, and Pyore nodded.

"I don't know." Pyore replied. "But she writes me letters from where she lives, telling me she has fallen in love. I am glad for her."

Treisha sighed, and ran a hand through her hair, pausing in her work.

For a moment, she considered telling Pyore her secret, that Treisha came from a different world, where this plain of existence was only a story told through a series of manga books. She thought about explaining to Pyore who her cousin had fallen in love with, and all the trouble that was on the way to Costa Rica Village. But then a feeling of foreboding fell on Treisha, something telling her not to say a word. Treisha pursed her lips together, and said nothing. She went back to work.

A couple of minutes later they finished, and Pyore and Treisha had just reentered the restaurant and saw over 9 baskets of apple blossoms sitting on the floor in front of the back door they had just come through. Pyore and Treisha stepped around the baskets, and after washing their hands off in the sinks, they made their way to the front room.

"Do you want some tea Treisha?" Pyore asked, and Treisha nodded her head. Pyore disappeared into the back room again, and a few moments later came back with a tray in her hands. She set it down on the table, and Treisha eagerly drew a steaming cup close. "Do you like doing men's work Treisha?" Pyore asked while Treisha was putting what she thought must be sugar into her cup and swirled it around. "I saw you and Rune switch jobs over in the apple orchard."

A smile came to Treisha''s face.

"I do enjoy it. I would much rather do men's work than a woman's."

"How come?" Pyore asked with genuine interest, and Treisha realized that Pyore had probably never once thought of doing men's work before.

"Well, I find women's work very…easy, and simple. Men's work also shows that I have strength, and I like people to know that I am strong and not weak."

"Why?" Pyore went on, and Treisha suddenly felt like a mother talking to a child who just keeps asking why, why, why, over and over again.

"Because, well," Treisha decided she could tell her a little bit. "In truth, and you can't tell anybody," Treisha leaned close to Pyore's ear to whisper. "I want to go to Draqueen and become a dragon fighter to serve the dragon lord." Treisha pulled back, and saw a total look of astonishment on Pyore's face.

Was it her surprise at a woman trying to do something so important? Or was it that there had never been a female dragon fighter before? (Treisha didn't remember there ever being a female one anyway, or any female officers actually)

"But you can't tell anybody, especially my Rath, Thatz and Rune, okay?" Treisha went on immediately, and Pyore covered her mouth with one of her hands.

"Of course." and Pyore gave a giggle. "I won't say anything, not a word."

It was then that Pyore saw something over Treisha's shoulder sitting in the corner. She got up and Treisha watched her as she went and picked up something from the corner. She brought it back to the table. Treisha's eyes widened. It was the "package." Had the knights forgotten it somehow when they'd left? She wasn't surprised Thatz had in his frenzy to leave for treasure, but she couldn't see Rune just forgetting it.

"Isn't this your friend's package?" Pyore asked, and Treisha nodded her head, hardly listening. "I guess they forgot it." And Pyore picked up the package, and took it back to the corner again.

Treisha watched, wondering why Pyore wasn't affected by the package either. Was it only Treisha who had been affected? Or had she been affected all, and had it been just her mind, playing tricks on her? This was a different world to her after all, and taking things for more than they seemed would be easy to do.

Suddenly, just as Pyore had sat back down at the table, loud voices were heard outside of the restaurant's front door. Treisha turned around in her chair, and together Pyore and her waited, until the voices presented themselves at the door as three young boys. It sounded as if they were arguing with each other, and Treisha couldn't hear what they were saying, but she caught enough bits to tell it was about wearing drag. (it was Rune's voice that she could tell this from, since it was his voice that was doing most of the yelling!) When the boys entered the restaurant, Thatz announced their arrival, even though it would have been impossible to miss.

"We're back!"

"Ohhhh, you made it!" Pyore exclaimed loudly, jumping to her feet as the knights came over to their table.

"Did you doubt it? I never mess up a demon hunt!" Rath said, and Rune glared at him.

"Never messed up before?" Rune gave a laugh. "That's a laugh!"

Treisha watched as Pyore went and got the package from the corner and handed it to Thatz.

"Here's your package." She said to him, and Thatz accepted it in such a way and with such a tone that it didn't look like they'd forgotten it by accident. Did they mean to leave it then? Treisha wasn't sure. She knew she wouldn't have left the head of the demon lord to be protected by a 13 year old female waitress.

"Thanks." Thatz said, and this is where Treisha finished her tea, and went over to where Rune and Rath looked about to kill each other.

"Guys, you're going to scare Pyore." She whispered to Rune, who had his hands wrapped about Rath's neck. Rune paused, and then let the fire dragon knight go with a glare and a sigh. The three of them then turned to face Pyore and Thatz.

"No, thank you." Pyore was saying, as Thatz put the package under his arm. "May I ask what's in it?"

Treisha watched, as Rune lurched forward to try and stop Thatz from replying, but didn't make it in time.

"A head." Thatz replied simply, and Pyore immediately zoomed back from him and toward the back door. "I'm kidding." Thatz said a moment later, and Treisha saw Rune hit himself in the forehead with a small growl of exasperation.

"Or not…." Treisha thought to herself, and covered her mouth with a hand as she gave a small chuckle.

"I believe you lost this." Thatz said, and held up the feather Treisha hadn't realized he was carrying. Pyore covered her mouth with both hands in shock, and her eyes went a watery color as if she was about to cry.

"The Phoenix Feather!" She gasped, thought the words were slight muffled by her hands, and then she removed them so she could speak more clearly. "Thank you, Rath, Thatz, and Rune. Now, my village will return to normal. How can I repay you?"

Treisha leaned over her shoulder.

"You shouldn't have asked that." Treisha whispered to her, and Pyore didn't have a chance to ask why, before Rath was already lunging toward her.

"By telling us where to find more demons!" Rath said, flying toward her with excitement, only to a moment later have Rune's elbow slam into the back of his head, making him exclaim a loud "Ow!"

"What's the quickest way to Draqueen?" Rune immediately asked, shoving Rath out of the way, and Treisha saw that somehow his mouth had been glued shut because of some kind bandana that had appeared wrapped about his head.

"Hmmmm?" Said Pyore. "What?" She said, appearing flushed, and then Thatz pushed forward in front of Pyore, a huge sack was on his back, maybe four feet wide, and it was so large, that it pushed both Rune and Rath four feet backwards. (Rath, still having his mouth shut tight because of the bandana.)

"Forget it! I got the booty!" Thatz said, and Pyore took a few feet back from him.

"Oh…" She said, looking suddenly slight sheepish.

"This must be the treasure he got from the Dark Swamp." Treisha thought to herself, observing the huge bag he carried slung on his back. "Come to think of it," She thought to herself a moment later. "If that thing has mostly gold and silver items, that bag must be overwhelmingly heavy. Thatz must have more strength than it appears!"

Next, the three knights turned toward the door, and walked outside. Treisha followed Pyore out onto the landing. There, they stood there a moment as the three boys headed out onto the street.

"What happy guys…" Seemed to be what the expression on Pyore's face said, and Treisha nodded, sharing that expression, and so the two of them listened to the words the knights were saying to each other, as they walked down the street.

"Let's exchange these for cash as Cezarre!" Thatz shouted to the world around, and Rath looked almost as excited as him, as he said.

"Any demons there?" Rune glared at the both of them, and shouted at the top of his lungs, just as the other two were doing:

"Aren't we going home?!"

As the two watched the stuff going on before them, Treisha quickly leaned over to whisper in Pyore's ear.

"Oh, and Pyore, just wanted to tell you, make sure you keep an eye on Kuon Sheena. The person she's fallen in love with might cause her more trouble than you think it will. Be careful, and stay by her."

"Come on Treisha." Thatz suddenly yelled. "You don't want to get left behind do you?"

"Coming!" Treisha called back, and then she bounded down the green steps, and, holding up her skirt with a grumble, ran to catch up with the three boys.

"So, another fun adventure!" Treisha said to them as she caught up to them, and fell in stride with them.

"Your right Treisha!" Said Thatz cheerfully. "I got all this treasure, and I can't wait to sell it all for a high price in the next town!"

"And I got to kick lots of demon butt, all by myself!"

"Well, I hope you guys had a great time, because now we are heading HOME!" Rune snapped at them, and Treisha smiled, and then glanced back behind her, to Pyore. Treisha gave a wave, and then turned toward the city road.

She would become a dragon fighter to serve the dragon lord. She wouldn't be somebody the knights would defend or leave behind every time danger came around the corner. (If she was, then she'd be left behind all the time!) Rune had begun to see she wasn't weak, but it wasn't enough. You see, Treisha knew everything that was going to happen in what? The next two years! She wanted to help in those coming catastrophes, but not in the way where she merely warned people. She wanted to fight off the coming trouble, and defend those who couldn't defend themselves!

That was a good enough reason to lie to the knights….right?

**And so we come full circle once again with another chapter! Sorry this one took longer than the others. I had somebody review and say the word for word stuff got a little old, and I went back and looked, and quickly found I agreed. So this time, I made sure to add lot's of my own scenes with Treisha and the knights, (and others) and even have her miss a good deal of the scenes the book has. **

**So, this just goes to show that when you give me a review with advice, compliments, complaints, or just pointers, I really do take them to heart!**

**Rath: By the way, I have a question now that I don't have to follow what YOU, (meaning Night Silver, me) or the book makes me say. Why did Thatz and Rune have to come and ruin my fun? I had that demon taken care of, and right where I wanted him, and then you guys came and ruined everything! (Talking to Rune and Thatz)**

**Thatz: If we hadn't helped, you'd be dead, Rath!**

**Rath: No, he was right where I wanted him….and…**

**Rune: Rath, you need to learn team work!**

**Rath: I don't need team work, I can kill demons better on my own. **

**Glares from Rune and Thatz, and Thatz glances to Rune.**

**Thatz: This is why we never get back to the capital isn't it?**

**Rune: It's not like you help! You rush off after treasure and money as often as he does for treasure.**

**Treisha: Uh….guys?**

**Rune and Thatz: WHAT?**

**Treisha: (pointing to where Rath used to be standing) Rath's gone again. **

**Rune and Thatz both hit themselves in the foreheads in exasperation. Treisha turns toward the camera. **

**Treisha: And THIS is why it's going to take us two more books to get to the capital! **

**Rune: (Motions to Thatz and Treisha) Come on, let's go catch him.**

**Treisha and Thatz and Rune after a momentary pause: Again.**

**Me: Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ya later!**


	5. Chapter 4 part 1: Knights in White Satin

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Knights. I own Treisha, but all characters and such belong to Mineko Ohkami.**

**ALERT: Spoilers! There are going to be major spoilers of anything from book one through book 24.**

**Hi there people's! Here is chapter 4! This chapter was a difficult one to do! I toiled over it for a long time, (as you can tell by how long it took me to get this one posted! SORRY!) This one is about Rune dressing in drag and pretending to be a princess to defeat an enemy! (Won't tell you anymore than that) but there was a difficult and complicated problem. In the past, Treisha stays at the inns and restaurants while the knights go fight enemies, but this time there isn't a place like that to stay, and since most of the scenes all take place in a row and there are hardly any breaks, it was hard to put in my own scenes! (You'll see where I try to take care of this problem mostly in part 2.)**

**I hope it turned out okay. This one took a lot of extra work. Sorry it took so long. Your opinions would be appreciated, but if you read it, that makes me happy by itself! (Rather reviews though….******

**A real quick note: Another reason that this took me so long, is I slipped over to the sister site to this one, Fictionpress I think it's called. I started posting there, and it distracted me from this for a while. If you guys ever want to look me up over there too, my name is Night Silver's Whisper, and my stories are so far all under Supernatural. **

**Now, back to my very sadly neglected fanfic….**

**Chapter 4, part 1: Knights in White Satin: **

"Yes, yes, yes!" Thatz said loudly, sighing heavily as he stepped up in front of a bar. Rath, Rune and Treisha stood next to him.

"Thatz, we only left Costa Rica village an hour ago." Rune said with a heavy voice, like he'd said this several times already.

"I know, I know Rune, but it's been three hours since we eat, and I am starving, as well as tired. Hey, let's stay here tonight!"

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Rune said, shaking his head. "We are NOT staying here tonight. We need to cover more ground. We are on a mission, and we need to return to Draqueen! No more dilly dallying!"

Rath gave a giggle.

"What are you laughing at?" Rune snapped.

Apparently the elf was not in the best of moods. They had begun to notice this on the three hour trek from Costa Rica Village to here in Cezarre. Rune's mood had been going way down, and if any of them so much as touched him, or spoke to him he got snappy, and as soon as Thatz had even mentioned staying in this town, Rune had gotten all snappy. The only reason, (because of Rune) they were staying in this town for any time at all, was because they needed to trade in the treasure Thatz had gotten from the Dark Swamp, and to pick up lunch. (Because of Thatz.)

"Nothing, nothing." Said Rath, shaking his head, but he couldn't keep himself from giggling again, and got a slap upside the head for it. "What is wrong with you today man?" Rath asked him, rubbing his cheek as Rune crossed his arms over his chest. "You've been bitchy ever since we left Curu Rico."

"It's "Costa Rica" Rath." Treisha said to him, but she could tell Rath wasn't listening, but had his eyes on Rune instead, who seemed like he was about to explode, (like a canon), but then the fairy shrugged instead, and turned away.

"Today just feels like a bad day. Anyway," Treisha looked at Rune's back with a curious expression. Today felt like a bad day? What happened today? Her head wasn't working, and she was finding she couldn't remember. "You guys go get your treasure all sold off, and then go in and have your lunch. I'll go get some supplies for the road so we don't have to stop again for a couple of days."

"DAYS?" Thatz exclaimed, and Rune made an abrupt shushing motion. "You mean to say we aren't going to be staying in town for days? We're going to sleep outside every night, and….and…" Thatz was beginning to sputter.

"We are expected back at Draqueen. I will not have any more detours, excursions, adventures, distractions or so called "short cuts." We are heading home as soon as we get supplies." And Rune whirled around and began walking away, leaving three very dumbfounded friends staring at his back.

"Okay, that was strange." Rath said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, he's really high-strung today. Do you really think it's just because he feels today is going to be a bad day?" Thatz put in, and Rath shook his head.

"I'm going to go with him." Treisha suddenly said, and the two boys widened their eyes with surprise. "See you guys here later." Treisha said walking backwards, and then whirled around so she could run after Rune.

Treisha was confused. She didn't remember Rune being snappy, grouchy or other wise upset in this chapter, not until later anyway, so what was up? Was it possible she was actually altering the story? That by being here, she'd changed the story somehow, and made it so he was unhappy about something when in the book he actually wasn't? Or, maybe she was being paranoid, and maybe there was nothing wrong, or MAYBE, in the book Rune actually was annoyed and grouchy, but no one could tell because it was too close to how he usually acted, and……………..

Treisha made her mind shut up at this point. Any more ranting at herself, and she might actually go back to the belief she wasn't in an alternate dimension, and instead, that she had a mental problem and had created this world inside her own head. She didn't like this idea, and so stopped her "brain babble" right then and there.

It was also right here that she caught up with Rune, and fell into step beside him.

She ran through a couple different things she could say, but none of them sounded right. So she walked beside him a while staying silent. She just didn't know what to say to him. Treisha gave a sigh and ran a hand through her long brown gold hair, and then stumbled a moment, as she accidentally stepped on the edge of her skirt.

"Not used to wearing skirts, are you?" Rune asked her sourly, and she shook her head with a grin.

"No, where I come from I do a lot of work that you can't wear a skirt for." She replied to him, and he nodded.

"Kind of like the apple blossom job back in Costa Rica Village?" He went on, and Treisha nodded this time. Rune paused a moment, before saying: "It was quite obvious you weren't used to wearing dresses, because most girls wouldn't climb a tree with a man standing below."

Boom! Treisha's cheeks went bright red. She tried to stop it, but found she couldn't. She covered her face with her hands, and found this only made her feel sillier, but when she looked over at Rune, and saw him give a chuckle, and then a laugh, she didn't feel so silly.

They went to several stores, getting what Rune called "a couple doodads," and Treisha began to realize more and more that Rune really was the unspoken organizer and level headed person of the three dragon knights of Draqueen. For were it not for him, the knights would probably never think to pick up supplies for the road, and therefore would eventually end up only going to restaurants to eat, and sleeping in Inn's every night, making them run out of money faster than they apparently were already. Treisha smiled, knowing Rune probably didn't realize how important what he did was.

"So, how far from Chantle are we?" Treisha asked eventually, breaking the silence, and Rune seemed to get a look of relief at the start of conversation.

"Not far. It would usually be a couple of days, but with Rath and Thatz, who knows how long it will take to get there." They fell into silence again, and then Rune asked a question that gave Treisha quite a start.

"So, Treisha, excuse me for asking, but I have a question," The tone Rune was using worried Treisha slightly, and when she tipped her head slightly to the side in order to hear his whispering voice she knew it must be important. "You said when you met us in the forest that you knew who we were from hearing about us in the city and towns; you are bound to have noticed by now that people in the towns don't know who we are and where we come from, so I find it curious you say you heard about us in town." He finished, and Treisha looked away from him, as she continued to put one foot in front of the other.

How was she to answer? She'd have to lie, she surely couldn't tell him the truth, but she hated lying to him, to Rune especially for some reason.

"I…..yes, it's true. I didn't hear about you in town." Said Treisha, franticly trying to come up with a suitable lie in mere seconds, and finding it difficult. Ah, she got it! "I didn't want to mention it, but I have a touch of the "sight" and have for a while. It's not strong enough to be called a Seer's gift or anything, but I have seen you and Rath and Thatz in my scrying before." Treisha stopped there, and finally forced herself to look at Rune.

Would he believe her? It wasn't that far from the truth. In this world, they could call her knowledge part of a Seer's gift, but her gift of knowing the future didn't come from visions, crystal balls, or any other kind of magical item.

"That makes sense." Rune replied and Treisha gave a sigh of relief, but she also felt her shoulders lower slightly, as if the burden her lying had created had just been added too.

They continued walking, the air feeling slightly heavier to Treisha now. When Rune saw a bakery he motioned toward it with a tip of his head.

"Hey," Treisha said before they reached the bakery doors. "Why don't I pick up the supplies and you can ask directions to the capital?"

Rune looked at her for a few moments, as if in deep consideration, and this time, Treisha could understand his hesitation. He would be giving his money to a civilian, and a stranger at that. This meant that letting her do this would be based fully on trust.

Rune finally nodded his head to her.

"Alright, take a few coins and get this list of items and supplies, while I fetch us some directions." Rune answered, and then grabbed at the small bag Treisha now recognized as his money pouch, from where it was tied to his belt. He withdrew a few coins, and handed them to her. Treisha turned and headed into the bakery.

Treisha glanced around once the doors closed behind her, and took in her surroundings. The bakery wasn't very large. It had only a few tables near the large windows to her left, and there were only a few people sitting at them. In the corner a young man sat with a young woman, and they were obviously "together" because of their joined hands under on top of the table. The only other person sitting at the bakery tables was a man a couple of feet away from Treisha. He was elderly, and had a cane leaning against the wall on his left side.

Treisha walked up to stand in line, and scanned the list Rune had handed her. She quickly realized she only recognized a good half of the things listed, and felt a twinge of worry. This world, no matter how many times she had read the books, was still a mystery to her. She hadn't realized just how much a person couldn't learn about a world just by reading about it, especially when it was a manga series, and most of it mainly comprised of dialog.

Treisha picked at something under her fingernails.

She had done this, hoping that Rune might come to see that she was reliable, so that in the future if he needed help with something he could call on her. She wanted to prove herself to the knights, and she knew working one by one, step by little step, was probably the smartest way to go about it.

When it was her turn, Treisha stepped up to the counter, and handed the list to the man. Treisha knew she couldn't read the things off the list, because she didn't know how to pronounce some of them, and she didn't want to appear suspicious. The man behind the counter scanned the piece of paper, smiled at her, and gave her a price.

Here Treisha ran into a problem. Back at the Inn they'd stayed at in Costa Rica Village, Treisha had been happy she didn't need to pay for her room, because she didn't know this world's currency, and now she had come face to face with that very problem she had been so happy to avoid.

Treisha drew out the coins Rune had given her, and handed a handful to the man. He inspected them, gave her one back, and then slipped the rest out of sight. He told her it would be a couple minutes wait, so Treisha went over to one of the many empty tables and took a seat.

She wondered what was bugging Rune. She wanted to help, to cheer him up, but she wasn't sure how. She was pretty sure he'd already gotten a little more cheerful, but he still seemed….off…somehow. How could she help?

Treisha took a sip of the tea that sat in kettles on each of the tables, and it was just a few minutes later that her order was finished. She grabbed up the bags, gave the man her thanks, and then headed out the door. Treisha glanced around, and across the street from the bakery she spied Rune talking to two young boys who were sitting on a cement wall. Treisha waited until the street was clear, and then made her way across. When Treisha drew up beside Rune, he turned toward her.

"Hi there Treisha," Rune said to her with a smile, and Treisha wondered for a few moments if she saw relief on his face that she hadn't run off with his money or anything. "Can I take a few of those bags?" He asked, and Treisha nodded appreciatively, as she handed over a few bags. Rune turned back to the boys in front of him. "Treisha, this is George and Kenneth."

"Did they give us directions to the capital?" Treisha asked him, and he shook his head, but it was the boys, obviously named George and Kenneth, which answered her.

"Nope, but we did give your friend a warning about the invisible demon that comes here in his hunt for a princess though."

"Oh really?" Treisha said, looking around at the three, and finishing on Rune. "Demons?" She made her voice sound worried.

"Oh yes, demons! How terrifying!" Rune replied sarcastically to her, and then, under his breath so that only Treisha heard him, Rune added: "Rath would love to hear this." Treisha nodded knowingly. "Thanks." Rune replied to the boys, who both nodded their heads like machines, and then, just as Rune was turning away from them, Treisha saw a head appear behind him, only to then come to lurk over his shoulder. Treisha would've warned Rune, but since she saw immediately that the head of black hair belonged to Rath, she kept her mouth shut and waited with a grin.

"Hey Rune!" Rath said loudly, right next to Rune's ear. Rune gasped, his eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open. Next, the fairy jumped several feet away from Rath, nearly loosing his hold on the bags he was holding.

"Rath! You didn't hear did you?!" Rune said, looking worried, and startled.

"What? Hear what?" Rath said, a frown coming to his face as he cocked his head to the side.

A look of bewilderment came to the faces of the two boys watching the scene before them.

"What'd I miss?" Thatz asked suddenly, and Treisha got a start just as Rune had, as she realized Thatz was standing right next to her, Nadil's head slung on his back, but this wasn't the only thing he was carrying. Hanging at his side, he carried the bag he had carried the treasure in earlier, and of which now probably carried the money they had gotten for it.

"Ah, nothing much." Treisha replied to him, shaking her head. "Nothing Rune would want me telling you about anyway." She added after a moment, and Thatz glanced at her.

"That means it either had to do with demons, or treasure, doesn't it?" He asked her, and Treisha turned her eyes away from him.

"No comment!" She replied to him, and then realized the looks of the two boys sitting nearest them.

"Uh….are those two going to kill each other?" One of the boys asked, and pointed a finger toward Rune and Rath, who were still talking to each other.

"I don't think so…." Treisha replied, and then felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to Thatz.

"Hey Treisha, watch this!" He whispered to her, and then walked over to behind Rune and Rath.

"Hey Rune," Thatz said, an innocent look on his face nobody would believe, especially the company he was keeping at that moment. "A store owner told me about a demon in the Memphis Castle." Thatz finished, and Rune fell to the floor, his head in his hands, and the bags of supplies that he'd been holding falling to the ground, but of which thankfully stayed in the bags.

"Well, Rune might kill somebody now!" Treisha said, and the two boys with her stared at her, and then glanced back to the three boys, Rath, who was exclaiming loudly, "Demon hunting time" And Thatz, who was glancing over at Treisha and giving her a wink, and Rune looked positively frustrated and enraged with the both of them.

A few moments later, and Treisha found herself leaning against a brick wall, as Thatz gave Rune and Treisha the inventory of what they had gotten from selling all the treasure they had gotten from Costa Rica. It was amazing how much they had gotten, and Treisha could see that even though Rune still was obviously in a sour mood, his face had lightened at the idea they wouldn't need to worry about money again for a while. Treisha listened intently as Thatz listed off what they had gotten, hanging on every word. She wanted to learn as much as she could about this world from the knights so she would look less suspicious in their eyes. So far her lying to them had been working, but she didn't know how much longer that would last.

As soon as Treisha let her mind wander away for a moment, she realized that she wasn't following what Rath and Thatz were saying anymore. Currently, Rath was talking to Rune, and holding out something in his hands. Treisha looked closer, and gasped as she remembered what they were, right at the same time that Rath told Rune.

"The Dragon Queen's "Dragon Eyes!"' Rath exclaimed, and handed the "Dragon Eyes" over to Rune. A look of pure astonishment came to the elf's face, and his eyes went wide once again.

"I wonder how the demon got a hold of something that important." Treisha said, her eyes wide as she gazed at the small inch tall neon blue balls that Rune was now holding. They were beautiful in everyway, and they looked so smooth that Treisha longed to touch one. Then she realized everyone was looking at her. "Um…I mean…I wonder how something so the demon back in the other town got them." She went on hurriedly, and they nodded, moving on. Treisha knew she didn't have to worry about them thinking she knew what they were. Hardly anyone knew what the "Dragon Eyes" were after all, or so Treisha assumed.

Rune brought one of the balls up to eye level, and looked at it closely with awe and interest. It seemed almost as if he was as much taken by their beauty as Treisha was, but Treisha wouldn't have been surprised if Rune could sense more than she could. Since he was of the fairy tribe, or used to be before he joined the Dragon Clan, Rune might be able to sense an aura around the Dragon Eyes, of course, it wasn't as if Treisha knew a lot about the fairies of this world. In her world, she loved fantasy. She read everything there was to read about them. Vampires, werewolves, elves and fairies and pixies, as well as mermaids, gods and goddesses, even such things as griffins and other animalistic mythical beings such as unicorns. Here was a totally different story though. The creatures of this place, their dark creatures and their light, (meaning the demons, and the fairy tribe and dragon tribe) were different than the many Treisha had studied.

"I do wonder though." Rune mused, and glanced at the company of people standing around him. "Why were they in the Swamp Castle?"

"Dunno." Replied Rath with a shrug, and Thatz gave a nod.

"That's a good question though." He put in.

"The lord said they make their owner's wish come true." Rath added, grinning, and Treisha wondered how the queen had lost her eyes in the first place. It was on the edge of her mind….balancing on the tip of her tongue, but it wasn't coming to her at the moment.

Wait! A wish? Treisha paused, and wondered for a moment in silence why the Dragon Lord and Queen never used the wish, especially with all the trouble and chaos coming their way.

It was at this moment that the clouds went over the sun, and Rune and Treisha were both covered in shade. It was a nice relief. Treisha's legs felt stiff and slightly tired from all the hiking in the last few days, and the sunshine had begun to get a little too hot for her taste. The shade felt like a cool damp cloth being gently laid on her skin, and it was heavenly.

A mere second later, it was revealed to all that the shade Rune and Treisha stood in was not due to the clouds. Before Treisha even knew what was going on, she felt herself shoved to the side. She tripped, and fell to the ground. She was going to whirl around and ask Rune why he had done that, but immediately saw that Rune was busy. The elf was unconscious, and was held in the arms of a VERY tall figure wearing a black robe and black mask that covered all of his skin. Rune had dropped the groceries again, which this time had scattered across the ground, but Rune had apparently been able to keep a hold of a Dragon Eye, even though he was now knocked out. The 9 foot tall man turned, and began leaving with Rune lying in his arms with his eyes closed.

"Hey!" Thatz was shouting, a look of surprise coming to his face as he leapt forward after the departing figure.

"That thing's got Rune!" Rath shouted too, and Treisha saw him clench his fists, obviously ready to fight already, Treisha could tell he was ready to run after Rune too.

"Forget Rune! He's got my food!" Thatz yelled, and for a moment, Rath seemed to amazingly be distracted from running after the enemy, and instead, rounded on his brown haired friend.

"Come on!" He said to him loudly, demanding Thatz get some sense into his head, but from the expression on Thatz's face, Rath really shouldn't have even attempted.

"I mean, we've got to get them both back!" Thatz said, and then turned away from Rath, seeming to deflate a bit, as he looked down at his hands. "My favorite jam and everything…." He muttered to himself, and Rath just stood behind him, his eyes narrowed, and a look of annoyance on his face. This is where Treisha shoved herself to her feet.

"Guys! Go after him!" She shouted at them, and their eyes widened at her for a split second, and then Rath nodded.

"That's what we were going to do anyway!" Rath said, and Thatz bobbed his head up and down like a little bobble head from Treisha's world. She didn't have the time to laugh.

Usually she would never yell at the knights, but Rune had just saved her and gotten caught because of it, and she felt she should help somehow, even if she couldn't fight. Treisha's mind was so centered on helping with the situation, she didn't even think about the fact that in book one or Dragon Knights, Rune did get caught and taken away anyway. She was too distracted with trying to help.

"Stand back Treisha!" Rath yelled at her, and grinned as he turned away again. Treisha did step back so she stood by the brick wall again, and nearly tripped once again. She glanced down, and saw the groceries Rune had dropped, as well as one of the Dragon Eyes he hadn't been able to hold onto. Treisha went into a crouch, and ignored for a moment the noise around her as the knights tried to take action. She picked up the Dragon Eye and the smooth surface of it was amazing. It felt so comforting, and there was a presence around it. Treisha wasn't a fairy or anything, not a human with special powers, but she could feel an aura within and around the eye in her hand. She closed her eyes without deciding too, and in her mind she could see herself holding the eye, and it glowing a soft blue. It felt as if it was touching something deep inside her, and was sending her a soft warmth, a gentle caress that soothed her very thoughts.

"I got it!" Thatz said, and Treisha's eyes snapped open. Startled, the Dragon Eye slid from her hand and went rolling a few feet, to come to a stop a foot away from the fallen groceries. Treisha glanced up just in time to see Thatz summon up his sword with another shout and a determined look. And all in one smooth movement that wasn't often seen in the sometimes clumsy knight, Thatz brought his Earth up above his head, and then brought it down, fast, driving it into the ground. "GO!" He called. "Stop them, Earth Dragon!" As soon as he was finished saying these, Treisha felt a tremor in the street below her feet. She swayed a moment, and then braced herself against the brick wall so as not to fall….again. Treisha's eyes were fixed on the ripple that had started where Thatz's sword was driven into the ground, and of which then had rippled down the street and out of sight. Treisha knew it couldn't just be her mind playing tricks, but that it had been the Earth Dragon.

Silence fell, and Treisha stood there a few moments, a hand pressed to her chest as she waited for her heartbeat to slow to a more normal pace. Every time she saw the knights fight, or bring out their dragons, Treisha felt her adventurous spirit stir. She had always been adventurous, her entire life actually. Her childhood had been spent going to outdoor camps and learning survival skills, and she had always loved anything to do with sword fighting. This was why watching the knights do what they did made her spirit soar so very high.

Rath walked over to the fallen groceries, and leaned over to grab up the Dragon Eye that Rune had dropped. He stood up straight, ignoring the food on the ground. He either hadn't yet noticed it, or was ignoring its existence altogether. Rath turned to face Thatz, who had apparently not noticed the food yet either, which was more surprising than when Rath hadn't.

"Rune has the other eye." Rath said, playing with the Eye in his hands. "Hope he doesn't drop it." Rath went on.

"I don't think he would drop something so…expensive looking." Said Treisha, finally calming down and coming back to stand with the two knights again. She gazed at the Eye with a look of fascination. When she had held that Eye in her hands, the feeling it had given her had been utter heaven. It felt like settling into your favorite dream, or sitting in front of the fire in a large armchair with your favorite book. It was utter bliss, and complete comfort.

"Are you alright then Treisha?" Thatz asked her, and Treisha gave a nod and a sigh.

"You don't always have to ask me that you know, even if I am a civilian." Treisha said, and Thatz and Rath both raised an eyebrow. Treisha usually wouldn't have said that to them, but she was still feeling strong and a little less cautious from the run in with that stranger.

"Sorry." Thatz said, and then turned his head away before Treisha could apologize. Now she felt guilty for saying anything. They had only been asking her if she was alright, after all, that was part of their job as knights, to protect the innocent, to protect civilians…none warriors.

"Who was that?" Rath broke in, and Thatz shrugged. Treisha was glad he'd said something. The air had turned uncomfortable for a split second there. Treisha wondered for a moment that Rath was talking about, and then realized it was Rune's kidnapper "He wasn't a demon." Rath continued shortly.

"Earth's going after him." Thatz replied, looking at Rath, and pulled his sword out of the street. A thoughtful expression came to Thatz. "But isn't he heading…….towards Memphis Castle?"

Treisha shot him a look at the same time Rath did.

"Your right." Rath said, and clenched a fist in a random burst of excitement. "We should head there and get Rune back! There might even be some demon guards or something!" Rath went on, who appeared not to be talking to Treisha or Thatz anymore.

"And we have to get my food back too!" Said Thatz, and this is where Treisha suddenly tapped Rath and Thatz on the shoulder. They both looked down at her, and mutely, she motioned to the street around them.

With all the excitement, none of them had realized a group of the townspeople had surrounded them. They were all murmuring with each other, talking in whispers, and pointing at Rath and Thatz, and even Treisha. People of all ages were staring at them, and Treisha could imagine just how suspicious and curious they must all be. After all, they had seen a person completely in black that was 9 feet tall, swoop out of nowhere, knock Rune out, and carry him off. Next, they had witnessed Thatz summoning his sword out of thin air, followed by Thatz driving it into the street, and yelling the words, "Go! Stop them, Earth Dragon." Treisha wondered what was going through their heads now.

She ran a nervous hand through her hair, and waited for one of the other knights to do something.

"Oh, well….this is uncomfortable." Thatz said, giving a slightly nervous chuckle, but quiet enough only Rath and Treisha heard it.

"Do something." Treisha whispered to them, hoping from them to do something, take action, maybe stop this problem before they had an even bigger one on their hands.

"Like what?" Rath whispered back to her, and she shook her head. Treisha didn't know. She could come up with things to say, but she didn't have the guts at that moment to say any of them. She didn't have the right presence of empowerment. No, this was going to take a dragon knights intervention….or two.

"Well, come up with something." Treisha whispered again. She could tell the people looking at them wouldn't just walk away from this. They would ask questions, and then they would create theories on what they had watched and what it meant, which would then turn into rumors that would spread and spread. That chaos had to be stopped before it even started, which meant now!

"Good thing Rune's not here to see this, or he would kill us." Rath said, choosing not to reply to Treisha this time. "Seeing as you summoned your dragon right in from of them." He added to Thatz quietly, who shot him a glare in response.

"You were going to do the same, you bastard!" He said, his voice getting louder as he whirled around to face his black haired friend.

"Well, I didn't, did I?" Rath shot back, getting right in Thatz's face, and Treisha just stood nearby, completely at a loss on how to intervene. When she had hoped the knights might do something….this hadn't been what she'd had in mind.

"And why didn't you?" Thatz said, all quietness from his face having fled, just as it had with Rath's.

"Because I was protecting her from the kidnapper!" Rath motioned to Treisha with a wave of his hand without even looking at her. Treisha just continued to gaze on along with the townspeople; quite sure Rath hadn't protected her at all during this whole affair.

"What, you want to be the hero of this catastrophe?" Thatz shouted, the bangs of hair hanging on his forehead bouncing about.

They just kept shouting. Calling each other names, insulting each other, going on about this whole kidnapping and how coming here was a mistake, and Treisha was shocked. She had never seen the knights argue with each other this fiercely, well, not Rath and Thatz only anyway. But, eventually, the townspeople wandered away, already having become bored. After a few minutes, the street had returned to its normal hustle and bustle, it was almost as if the whole thing hadn't even happened. Treisha had no doubts that it had though.

She turned to Rath and Thatz, who had stopped arguing. Suddenly, the two gave each other a high five.

"See? No problem at all!" Rath said smugly, crossing his arms over his chest, and grinning widely at the gaping Treisha.

"Yepper! I think the Alfeegi himself would be impressed with us!" Thatz said, echoing Rath's smugness in a smile and a thumbs up.

"Now, that's pushing it Thatz." Rath put in, frowning, and Thatz raised an eyebrow in response, and then gave a shrug, dismissing the subject. Finally, Treisha shook her hands in front of her face as if to clear her head of the confusing nonsense she was hearing.

"You guys mean to say…..you said all that stuff to each other just to bore the people watching make them leave?" She them, trying to keep her astonishment and disbelief out of her voice and failing miserably.

"You got that right Treisha!" Said Thatz, and gave her a wink. "That situation could have turned really bad. We don't want everyone knowing who we are….especially not that way!"

"What?" Rath asked, turning to face Thatz with a puzzled expression. "That was a fake conversation? Someone should have told me!"

"You imbecile." Thatz said quietly, and then had to shield himself from being clobbered. "You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Thatz continued, and ducked Rath's flying fist.

"I don't believe this." Treisha said softly, and ran a hand through her hair, and gave a small laugh.

"Well, we thought if we argued with each other that no one would have a chance to ask us questions, and would get bored, and leave." Said Rath, finally leaving Thatz alone, and talking to Treisha about the secret plan Rath wouldn't admit to having known about. "All the while, we made sure to explain subtly that what had happened here had merely been a kidnapping, and if you listened closely Treisha, we never mentioned any of our names! I'm a genius!" Rath added the last part with a wistful sigh, which resulted in a whap upside the head from Thatz.

"Weren't you just saying you didn't know you were pretending?" Treisha asked Rath, who appeared to pause in thought, unsure of how to answer her.

"I lied." Rath finished, giving a shrug, followed by a wink, which strangely contrasted with each other.

"Guys, stop wasting time arguing. We need to go get Rune, and my food!" Thatz interrupted them, and Treisha and Rath both collapsed to the floor with two thuds. People turned their heads and glanced at them, but paid no more attention than that. Treisha rubbed her forehead tenderly where she had hit on the street as she sat up again. How come when the knights got bopped on the head, collapsed to the ground in exasperation, or even had a boulder dropped on their heads or had a machine gun pointed at them and fired, that they recovered in seconds, and Treisha had to deal with the pain like a normal human being? It was infuriating.

"Hey Thatz." Treisha said, and Thatz paused to glance over his shoulder at her. "Look at your feet."

Thatz turned away from Treisha again without asking for further explanation, and looked down. At his feet were the groceries of supplies Treisha had bought earlier, and that Rune had dropped when he'd been taken away.

"Hey, how did these get here? Did that black guy come back when we weren't looking to bring back the groceries?" Thatz said, glancing from side to side in earnest, and his eyes searching the street in both directions.

"What? That guy came back?" Rath said, suddenly paying attention again as he heard the mention of a possible fight.

"Yeah, he brought back my food and my favorite jam too. I guess he doesn't like Strawberry jam. Shame." Thatz said, crouching low and picking up a small jar of jam that had thankfully not been shattered in either times Rune had dropped the bags.

"Guys!" Treisha yelled exasperatedly at them. "We need to go get Rune." She said when they were both paying attention to her again. Rath shrugged as Thatz returned to lazily picking up the food on the ground and returning them to the bag in a solemn way.

"Ah, what's the hurry?" Thatz asked, and gave a yawn as if he were bored. "Rune can handle himself."

"Don't worry about that guy." Rath put in with a grin that showed he wasn't worried at all. Treisha was slightly surprised at how they were acting. Why weren't they rushing off to help their captured fellow? "He's fine Treisha. As Thatz said, he can handle himself just fine." Rath finished, and gave a yawn just as Thatz had, showing he was kind of bored as well.

Treisha stared at them. She didn't want to push, but Rune had shoved her out of the way he had gotten caught where as if he hadn't it probably would have been her. Because of this, she felt that she had an obligation to Rune to rescue him, but from looking at the two knights as they were at that moment, Thatz still putting things back in the bags, and Rath leaning over his shoulder, giving another yawn and a stretch, Treisha could tell they weren't feeling very inclined to help their elfin friend.

"Hey!" Thatz said all of a sudden, startling Rath and Treisha both, as the Earth Knight lurched to his feet. "Do you think that this Memphis Castle might have treasure…just like the Dark Swamp did back in Curu Rico?"

"That would be Costa Rica." Rath said, correcting Thatz, who shot him a glare, but Treisha snickered.

"Well, at least someone is learning." She said dryly, but it appeared they hadn't heard her, or rather, they were ignoring her.

"Anyway," Thatz went on, dismissing the both of them, and grinned. "We should head to that Castle. There might be treasure!"

"Not interested." Rath said, crossing his arms over his chest, and anyone could have predicted what would happen next. Thatz crept up to Rath, and whispered to him.

"There might be demons guarding the castle or something." Rath's eyes brightened, he perked up, and his face went into a grin.

"Let's go then!" Rath exclaimed, and whirled in a circle, kicking over the grocery bags…again….so that its contents once again spilled all over the ground. Thatz gave a yell of exasperation, and then had to put everything back in the bags for the third time that day. Afterwards, once Rath had gotten directions, the three of them headed off to Memphis Castle.

Treisha didn't know she wouldn't make it there.

**To be continued…..**


	6. Chapter 6 Part 2: Knights in white satin

**Once again, sorry it's taken so long to get this posted. I've been focusing a lot of my writer's attention on my stories, (which is under the same name by the way) and it's taken me this long to get back to this story. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Knights. I own Treisha, but almost all other characters and such belong to Mineko Ohkami.**

**ALERT: Spoilers! There are going to be major spoilers of anything from book one through book 24. Book 25 should be within days here in where I live, Portland Oregon. HAVE NO FEAR. I will reveal NOTHING of that book to you. It will not be in the story. I'm not even sure if I'm going to read it. I'm too afraid I'm going to loose the Dragon Lord…..**

**Anyway, there will be no chapters in this story from volume 25. You'll see what I do decide to do, when I get there, but I can assure you there will BE NO SPOILERS from volume 25, the last book. (WAH)**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 4: Part 2: Knights in White Satin:**

They were on their way. Treisha's spirits were light as she traveled with the other two knights. Some might wonder why she was so light spirited, seeing as Rune had just been captured and taken to the Memphis Castle by a demon. The reason she wasn't worried? Because she knew he was fine. He was a Knight, and besides that, it wasn't like the so called "demons" were going to hurt him. Well, maybe his pride.

Thatz gave a loud yawn, stretching his arms above his head as he did so.

"You look surprisingly relaxed for someone who just had their friend kidnapped." Treisha said to him, and he shrugged at her.

"Rune can take care of himself Treisha. We're Dragon Knights after all, and he is the bitchiest of us all." He whispered the part about being Dragon Knights. Treisha noticed the smug grin on Thatz's face with curiosity.

"Why are you so cheerful anyway Thatz?" Rath asked him, and Thatz shrugged again. He was fingering a strand of his hair nonchalantly, and was then giving another yawn.

"We just got all that booty sold for one, and for another, we have food!" Treisha still didn't believe this was all that was making him overly happy and optimistic. "Also," Thatz said, looking even smugger. "With Rune being kidnapped, it's possible we won't be forced to sleep on the road tonight, like he planned."

Treisha gave a laugh as Rath rolled his eyes. That explained it thoroughly. Thatz and food and treasure, those were his obsessions. Rath's was obviously demon hunting, but as for Rune's? Treisha wasn't quite sure. Maybe making sure they didn't disappoint the Dragon Lord, or fail missions. Those might be his obsessions. If Treisha asked Thatz or Rath, they'd probably jump to say those were true.

They were walking the streets of the city, and heading toward the gates. The roads were packed with people even though it was nearing sunset. Although she did have a little concern for Rune, Treisha was also highly looking forward to seeing Rune in drag.

Was that strange? Was it odd she wanted to see Rune in a dress? She wasn't a lesbian for sure. Treisha liked guys, liked a lot of guys from the DK series, including Alfeegi, Rune, the Dragon Lord, Ruwalk, Sabbel, and several others. She had friends in her world that weren't Straight, but she wasn't among them. Maybe it was that she enjoyed how Rune looked in anything.

They had just seen the gates and were angling toward them, when Treisha heard a voice off to her left. She stopped, froze and listened. Had she heard right?

She didn't hear anything now, but once she glanced around, she swore she saw him sitting at a table outside a restaurant. She couldn't tell from where she stood though. She stared for a moment, unbelieving, and then thoughts began badgering her mind.

"Thatz, Rath, you two go on ahead. I'll catch up." She shouted at them, and hoping they wouldn't follow, she sped away from them and toward the restaurant. When she got close enough, she halted, and stood around the corner nearby.

The two boys looked at each other, considering.

"Should we go after her?" Thatz asked, a look of contemplation on his face that appeared a little overdramatic.

"It's what Rune would want us to do." Rath replied instantly.

Without another word, both boys turned and headed out of the city, and off toward Memphis Castle.

Meanwhile, Treisha was peering through the bars of the iron fence surrounding the outdoor seating of the restaurant. She had to see it to believe it. She had to have proof. He wasn't supposed to come into the story until a good few books later, after all. None of the Knights other than Rath even knew about him at this point. Only the Dragon Lord and Rath knew, and were aware of the special ability he had. What was he doing here?

She squinted, and then her eyes widened.

Bierrez.

She was right! He was sitting at a simple table, a napkin clenched in one of his gloved hands. His hair was its usual strangeness, brown, gold and other shades, and water was dripping off of it. Apparently, the waitress who was standing next to the table had somehow spilled water on him. He wasn't at all happy about it either. He was speaking to her with his naturally hot and angry tone. The waitress, a simply dressed young girl, had a arrogant pouting expression on her face. She clutched a menu to her chest, and her long gray hair was…..wait a minute. It was Cesia.

Treisha realized, all at once, what she was looking at. It was the flashback that Bierrez had from book 10. It was when the One Winged Angel had possessed him, and forced him to attack Cesia. Zoma, Cesia's little demon friend, had been yelling at him to stop, reminding him who it was he was choking to death. He'd had this very flashback. Treisha could see it in her mind, that panel in the book. She was watching it now, in person, only this time not in panels, and with audio. It was much better this time.

"What do you think your doing?" Bierrez was saying hotly, and used the napkin to dry his face. Cesia was still looking at him with an arrogant and irritated look on her face, of which the demon before her seemed either unaware of, or was ignoring.

"Serving you your drink, sir." Cesia replied, and Treisha withheld a laugh. That was Cesia for sure. Bierrez looked at the girl for a second; almost as if he was surprised a mere girl would speak to him in such a way, and then sighed angrily.

Did Bierrez know Cesia was a demon? Of course he did. He would be able to smell it, to see it. He was partly working with Nadil's Army after all. He had to have heard about Cesia, and maybe that was why he was there? No. He couldn't know. He didn't appear a demon out to kidnap Cesia. In fact, he looked totally sincere in his anger at her.

Bierrez got to his feet, and stalked away. Treisha had to duck down in order not to be seen by him, and then watched between the bars, as the demon sent a glare back toward the restaurant and the waitress who had spilled his drink all over him. He saw Cesia had already moved onto the next table, and this time was gracing those customers that sat there with a smile. Treisha was sure that was the same smile that Bierrez later flashed back on during his possession. Pity, came to Treisha's mind, as she saw the expression on the demon's face.

Bierrez walked right past Treisha, and into the next alley over. After a second of hesitation, she followed after him. When she rounded the corner, and the alley was laid before her, she immediately pulled back. She made to hide herself in the en-shadowed doorway of a home. She pressed herself there, breathing fast. The sounds of the streets outside and the townspeople seemed to have been muffled and toned down. In that alley, everything said seemed clear as a bell.

"Was that her?"

"I guess so." Bierrez replied to the speaker offhandedly. "She's younger than I thought she would be," Treisha heard the noise of him brushing himself off. "And irritating as hell too." He added, and Treisha glanced around the corner just in time to see the demon shake his head like a dog. When the water droplets touched his skin, there was a soft sizzling noise as they evaporated. For the second time in the last ten minutes, Treisha's eyes widened in surprise. She recognized that startlingly red hair that stuck up in odd directions like Rath's, and hung on the sides of his head, almost concealing his pointed ears. Those bright red eyes too, made the fact he was a demon obvious to anyone who knew what to look for. He stood in the shadows of a doorway just like she did, and the totally black outfit he wore made him blend in. Looking more closely at the bottom half of his body, she saw shadows whispering around him, reminding her of dancing fire.

Fedelta laughed.

"Good to hear it. It's about time we learned of something before the Dragon Clan does." He drawled, a grin stretching across the fire demons face. "It's been to long since they've experienced a little bloodletting." Fedelta licked his lips, and Bierrez just looked at him. "Well, off to report. Well done." And the demon melted completely into the darkness.

"There he goes, scurrying off to report to his superiors like the little lap dog he is." He snickered to himself as he stared at the empty space Fedelta had occupied a moment before. "Speaking of lap dogs, is Fedelta having me watched now?" Treisha's breath caught. She couldn't breathe for a moment, and her heart went galloping. She calmed herself. She would not, absolutely could not, reveal herself as being terrified in front of Bierrez. She'd seen him before, knew everything the DK books could tell her about him. Her confidence summoned, she stepped out of the shadows.

"That's…" Treisha cleared her throat. "That's what they do sometimes with rogue demons." Immediately, she wanted to cover her mouth with both hands, aghast at what she'd just said. She'd just revealed to him she'd been eavesdropping, knew he was a demon, and a rogue one at that, and that he was involved with Nadil's Army. How much trouble was Treisha trying to get herself into?!

"Oh?" Bierrez crossed his arms over his chest, and surveyed Treisha up and down. She made sure not to look nervous. "And you would know this how? You don't look like you work with Nadil's army, or like a demon."

Strangely enough, an answer came to Treisha immediately.

"I've been around the block a few times, seen a lot." She took a subtle steadying breath, and hoped the demon's senses wouldn't be sharp enough to pick up on it. "But you were right when you guessed I wasn't a part of Nadil's Army, or a demon."

Bierrez gave an arrogant scoff.

"I never guess. I'm always sure."

Treisha didn't know what to say to that. For a moment, silence fell, and Treisha wondered what she had meant to accomplish by following him into that alley. Hadn't seeing him talking to Cesia been enough? Now he was suspicious of her, and she wasn't sure what she could tell him to remedy that. Unluckily enough for her, the subject he brought up next did nothing to improve her situation. It only worsened it.

"Were you eavesdropping then?"

Treisha shook her head immediately, perhaps a little too quickly. Her breathing was coming a bit quick, so she was relieved that she talked with a clear firm tone.

"What if I was?" She replied, and saw the demon snicker. He was thoroughly enjoying this she realized, and of course he was. This was Bierrez! This was a game to him, one in which he was making all the rules, and was guaranteed to be the winner. The smile on his face said it all.

"That's not exactly an answer." He spoke slyly, his eyes smiling and snickering at her even while his face stayed mostly calm. Everything about him said he was mocking her, taunting her, and why shouldn't he? She was a mere human after all. As much as she hated to admit it, she held no doubt that if he decided he would gain anything from it, he would slaughter her on the spot. Bierrez wasn't exactly a good guy yet, Treisha had to remember.

"What answer do you want me to give?" Treisha replied lamely. She was feeling her way now. She didn't know what to do, other than she probably should get out of that alley immediately. She shouldn't have followed him. She couldn't warn him about anything that would happen in the future as a trade for her to walk away. She knew her words were only a humans words. They would mean nothing to a rogue demon like him.

"Do you know who she is?" Bierrez finally asked, after staring into Treisha's eyes for a few moments.

He was looking so deeply into them that she felt violated. Those demonic golden orbs felt alluring, and yet terribly dangerous. She'd seen what he could do too. She knew he was dangerous, fatally so. She knew who he was referring to as well. He was asking her if she knew about Cesia, and that the girl he'd just met with had been her. She couldn't tell him yes, no matter the risk she'd be taking by lying. If she said yes, he would know too much. He would want information from her, would demand it without relenting. Treisha liked Bierrez. She had thought him cool, and later on, very brave and very noble, especially in his saving of Cesia. Maybe when Treisha had entered that alley, she'd thought to meet him finally, that she could trust him. If that was the case, she was disgusted with how terribly naive and foolish she had been. That wasn't a Dragon Fighter's way of thinking, she knew.

"No." Treisha said, forcing herself to look into his golden eyes without waver or hesitation. He held that gaze; he held it firmly and steadily. He delved into her eyes, searching her for human weakness, a weakness he could abuse in order to retrieve the truth. She held her ground until he was apparently satisfied, and looked away.

"You're not a normal human."

Treisha almost gasped at his softly spoken words, and when she looked directly at him, she realized he was glaring at her.

"But I don't care. There's nothing for me to gain by talking with you further. Take whatever you did hear, and do whatever you want with it." Bierrez leaned against the wall, his long layered outfit of grays and browns creasing in all the right places. He was a handsome demon, for sure. It was also clear that he was dismissing her. Treisha didn't hesitate. She turned, and ran from the alley.

Once outside, and back in the sunlight, she leaned against a brick wall next to a black fence. She closed her eyes a second, and tried to slow her breathing. Before she had finished getting a level head again, she felt a hand clasp her shoulder. It was strong, yet felt graceful in some way. Treisha's eyes' snapped open, startled. She looked at the person possessing the hand, for a second worried Bierrez had followed her, even though she was quite sure he had no reason too. As he'd said, he had nothing to gain from talking with her.

"Running from a demon sometimes makes them more interested in following you. I'd be aware of that in the future." Cesia said to her, looking at her with a sweet grin and with golden eyes a much lighter shade than Bierrez's. They were much closer to being a dark shade of yellow, actually. Cesia was close enough, that Treisha could just barely see the cord of Cesia's Dragon Amulet around her neck.

"I know that." Treisha said and shrugged out of Cesia's hold. She was feeling stronger now, and her calm mind seemed to have returned to her. Despite this, Treisha knew talking to Cesia was probably worse even than talking to Bierrez. Not because of the danger, but because of altering something. If Cesia were to happen upon the Knights again before when they were supposed to, things go terribly wrong. Treisha could just feel it. Treisha turned away from the female demon concealing her identity, and tried to walk away, but Cesia caught her arm with one of her small graceful hands.

"You were…." Treisha interrupted abruptly, not wanting Cesia to make that dangerous connection.

"At the diner you worked at, right!" She said in a nervous but cheerful tone. She forced a smile. "You worked at the Tiny Mini right? I think I remember seeing you there." Treisha snapped her mouth shut. That didn't help! No one else there had seen Cesia. The only customers Cesia had served had been the Knights and Treisha. The town had still been illusionary. "I mean," Treisha said, trying to fix her mistake. She calmed herself. "I mean, I heard people talking about you there. You were a past waitress, right?"

Cesia looked at her in a way similar to the way that Bierrez had. She was searching for a lie in Treisha's eyes. She was human. Cesia knew this of course, and because of this, hoped for Treisha to make a mistake, and betray a lie.

Whether she decided Treisha had passed or not, unlike Bierrez, Cesia appeared to accept Treisha was telling the truth. She might have been pretending, and had realized Treisha had been traveling with the Dragon Knights, but if she did, she kept it well concealed.

"Maybe." She replied, and Treisha paused a moment, and then turned and fled the restaurant, unaware that Cesia was staring after her. "Running from a demon sometimes makes them more interested in following you." Cesia repeated to herself, and then smiled, but it didn't seem to be a happy expression of emotion. It seemed somehow….grimmer.

Treisha made her way toward the gates to the City. She needed to catch up with Rath and Thatz. She had no idea how far ahead they were now. Worse? Treisha hadn't a notion on how to get to Memphis Castle. She'd only told them she did because she'd been in such a hurry, and had been worried they'd follow after her.

"Sir, do you know the way to Memphis Castle?" Treisha eventually asked one of the four guards standing watch at either side of the gate. The four all exchanged a look, and one chuckled, one rolled their eyes, one looked shocked, and one actually gave her an answer.

"Goodness child! Why would a young lady like you want to go there?" He asked her, and she inwardly sighed. There it was again. They didn't want to give her information because she was a woman! Ironically, she put on a pretty smile for them.

"My partner's up there, and I'd like to fetch him." They all looked at her as if she were crazy, which spurred on her next words. "He's not quite right in the head you see." She added, and tapped the side of her head, still smiling in a sweet way that she hated. It made her feel like a seducer or something. The men exchanged another look, and then the man who'd replied to her before, spoke again.

"The directions are quite simple."

"It's as easy as finding Draqueen in Dragoon!" Another man threw in, and chuckled. It made Treisha feel foolish for asking, but she tried to remain confident looking. It seemed, somehow, important.

"Anyway," the man said, grabbing her attention back from the other men. "See that castle up there on the hill? The one with black smoke coming out the top, and the ruins next to it? That's Memphis Castle."

Treisha looked where the man was pointing, and felt even more foolish than before. The Castle was sitting right there on the hill, obvious and apparent for all to see. She made a metal note to berate herself later.

"Thank you." She said, and began to walk through the gate, and the men stared after her, all frowning.

"There's a strange one." One of them said, surveying the view they had of the girl walking away. "Pity." He said, and they all shook their heads sadly.

As soon as Treisha felt she was far enough away, she broke into a run. She was so terribly behind the others, and should have been worrying about that, but instead, her mind was on her two latest DK encounters.

She'd met Bierrez, and spoken to Cesia. Both of these were huge mistakes she should have avoided, but she couldn't deny she completely regretted them. Although, she did regret not having been able to say more to Bierrez. There was so much she wished she could have warned him about, like that death was the only thing that awaited him in the Dragon Castle. That when Karl the Alchemist built a arm for him, that it was a trick and would destroy him. She hadn't said any of this though, and had instead made a fool of herself. How could she ever call herself Dragon Fighter material? How could she ever call herself worthy of serving the Lord?

Memphis Castle slowly drew closer as the sun descended the sky. She was trying to remember everything about where she was going so she could forget about where she'd just come from.

Okay. Here were all the facts she could remember: There was a bad fairy named Gow, who took the Prince Euclid and hid him away somewhere. Then he did something to Princess Melnini to make her terribly sick, and she passed away. Now there was a demon ravaging the village in search of her, and said it would stop if the village gave her up. Rune was being forced to wear drag in order to trick the demon into thinking he was Princess Melnini, since they were such look-alikes. Then they would kill the demon.

The Castle loomed before her now, and she was racing up the long steps to the landing with the entrance. Once there, she immediately decided, without thinking anything out first, that it would be better to circle around to the back where she'd seen the ruins to be. She distinctly remembered that to be where tonight's events all took place.

There was a cement path that went around the left side of the building, and Treisha took to it. As soon as she'd turned the corner, she already heard the noises. Shouting. At the next corner, the ruins then burst into view. She stepped off the cement path, and onto ancient cracked cement. In front of her were the ruins. There were cracked and broken spires, benches and steps. She took it all in, but it wasn't these she focused on. On the left, Rune was standing in a floor length white gown. There were jewels in the belt, and on the chest that shown the royalist of colors. His long blond hair had been pinned on top of his head with a very noble looking barrette. His hair had been curled somehow, and now flowed over his shoulders as gracefully as any princesses.

Truly, he did look as beautiful as Princess Melnini would've looked had she been standing there in his stead.

Standing with Rune was Prince Euclid, who had just materialized from a black vapor, into a beautiful prince. In his black uniform, with his short black shaggy hair and his eyes that seemed to shine, he appeared exhausted to the point of collapse. It seemed only the sight of his living fiancé was keeping him on his feet now.

On the right side, was one of the half shattered walls, of which Rath and Thatz were crouched by. They were conferring and talking, but Treisha of course couldn't hear a word.

Suddenly, there was a shout from just 10 feet to Treisha's right. She glanced over sharply, and saw a figure crouched by the wall of the Castle. It was some kind of creature, Treisha could tell that much. He had a large ghoulish face, and his eyes were huge. His hair was spiky in a bad way, two of his teeth were pointed, as well as his long, thin nose.

This was the bad fairy that had killed Melnini, and had stolen the prince away.

"He's back to normal! Curses!" The bad fairy, Gow, said, and Treisha bit her lip to keep quiet. "But I can still torture him! He's almost dead anyway!" He went on, obviously talking completely to himself, since no one was near enough to hear him, and he apparently hadn't yet noticed Treisha standing 10 feet away. "I just have to get the princess!" Gow said in a smaller, malicious tone, and picked up a axe that had been lying at his bare feet.

Treisha considered attacking him, hitting him with something, but in the time it took her to glance around for such a thing, Gow had already abandoned his hiding spot. He'd now stood, and seemed ready to prance out into the open.

Rath stood to his feet, and instantly, he'd summoned his fire sword out of nothing. His face was focused and concentrated, but his eyes showed his excitement. Treisha knew Rath had somehow sensed the bad fairy was about to enter the fray. She wondered if it was some kind of demonic power or some such. She imagined it was just Dragon Knight instinct.

"So, your alive, Melnini!" Gow shouted, quickly moving into the sight of the others. Treisha moved closer, trying to think of a plan. She thought about helping, but really didn't know in what way. Prince Euclid had just slid in front of Rune with a drawn sword now in his grasp. Rune looked surprised, but didn't move to take any action of his own. It would ruin his disguise after all. "You tricked me, and broke my spell, too! That cocky prince almost sealed me away! But I set him up! I loved torturing him! He'll be dead soon!" The fairy Gow let out a laugh, as he raised his axe into the air, seemingly planning to rush at the prince and sorta princess. "But first, I'll kill you in front of him, Melnini."

This is when Rath and Thatz stepped in, of course.

"Is that so?" Rath asked, and Treisha turned her attention back to Euclid and Rune. The two were speaking with each other, while Rath and Thatz both yelled at Gow, and vice-versa.

Treisha leaned against the wall of the castle. Did she even need to have run here? Why didn't she just wait back in town? She could have sat down and had a bite to eat served by Cesia. Well, no she couldn't have. Too dangerous, but it seemed better than being here. She liked the fact she'd gotten to go with them this time on their mission, but now that she had, she realized once again, that she was utterly useless. What was the point in just watching? If that's all she was going to do, why be there at all?

She closed her eyes as she turned her head up towards the sky, and sighed. Dark had completely fallen, and now the air around her was beginning to grow chilly. She wrapped her arms about herself.

A battle was going on just 20 feet away, the kind of battle that made her spirit fly when she watched them in movies in her world. The kind of fight scene that would have her sitting on the edge of her seat, eyes locked to the screen. However, she could do nothing to participate.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." She said to herself, rubbing the palm of one of her hands against her forehead roughly. She felt so stupid for being there. It was so foolish of her, so childish, so completely stupid….

"Miss, can I help you?"

Treisha glance over abruptly, startled once more. She was beginning to grow quite tired of being snuck up on now. Before her stood the chamberlain that had helped kidnap Rune earlier. He was shorter than she, and had a head of brown hair. His eyebrows were far to high and bushy for his face, and his eyes looked odd.

Treisha scurried for a reply that didn't sound like total idiocy, and ended up just telling him the basic trip.

"I'm with them." She motioned with a sloppy jerk of her head toward the stuff going on behind her. She shrugged. "Kinda." She added softly, and more to herself.

"I see." The chamberlain replied, nodding his head at her in a strange way. "Can I get you anything as you wait?" He asked, and it sounded so lame, that it made Treisha feel a bit better. She didn't feel like such a foolish child anymore.

"That's alright. It won't be long now I think." She said, and just then there was a…….

BAM.

They both looked over, and barely saw in the darkness, that Thatz had used his Earth Dragon to split a crack in the Earth, and the bad fairy had just disappeared into it, yelling something along the lines of, "IMPOSSIBLE! ARRGH..."

Treisha then watched closely, or as closely as she could in the little light cast from the few windows of the Memphis Castle, as Rune, who was for some reason, kneeling on his knees on the floor now, looked at something on the ground. Treisha shielded her eyes from something shinning brightly, a brilliant baby blue color, and when she could bare to look closer, realized that it had been one of the Dragon Queen's Treasure's, a Dragon Eye.

What happened next took Treisha's breath away, and she found her guilt vanished, and her heart was thundering. Tears ran down Rune's cheeks, appearing silver in the late evening. He was leaning against Prince Euclid's chest, and the Prince was returning the embrace. Rune was smoothing a finger over Euclid's lips, who'd closed his eyes. Rune's tears still flowed, but in that moment, clad in that white dress, his blond gold hair in curls, and the Prince Euclid holding him, Rune truly did appear more than a princess than Mineko Ohkami's drawings could ever have conveyed.

Treisha understood what must have happened. The Dragon Eyes must have brought princess Melini back to life for this moment. They must have picked up on the emotions of Euclid, his terrible longing for his lost fiancé, and the Dragon Eyes must have also heard Rune's thoughts of wanting the Princess to return as well. Treisha remembered Rune hating to be forced to lie to the prince, and perhaps, the Dragon Eyes had understood that, and acted.

Prince Euclid vanished.

All eyes turned to look up into the sky, as a black vapor twisted, turned, and then winked out of sight. Silence went on for a bit, and Treisha knew that even though none of the others had read the Dragon Knight books as she had, that they all were thinking along the same lines as she just had. Well, that included everyone except for the chamberlains.

They all wondered whether it had been a Dragon Eyes miracle. Treisha knew though, but felt no inclination at that moment, to speak up about her special knowledge.

"Come, lady." The chamberlain said softly, and Treisha connected gazes with him. "They will not want to know a woman saw this particular battle. Let's return to the front of the castle." Treisha nodded her head, knowing he was exactly right.

Rune would not want to know that she'd seen his tears, whether or not they were his or Melnini's didn't matter. They had been from his eyes, and had run down his face. It was best Treisha pretended she hadn't seen. What good could come from it anyway?

They sat on the landing of Memphis Castle in silence, the wind gently brushing through their hair, and the chamberlain was so quiet that she forgot he was there, until Rath, Thatz and Rune came around the corner, and the chamberlain rose to speak.

"I trust all went well?" He asked, and they all nodded. Thatz gave a thumbs up.

"You bet! But how about that reward?" He added all in the same breath, and held out his cupped hands expectedly. He seemed, at that moment, like a boy on Christmas morning. Treisha distinctly remembered comparing him to the same thing once before. It still seemed to fit quite perfectly.

The chamberlain handed the reward to Thatz, and it was then that the three Knights realized just who was standing behind him.

"Treisha!" Thatz announced loudly, clapping his hands together right after he slid the money into his pocket. "When you'd get back?"

However, before Treisha could answer this question, Rune threw out one of his own.

"I was meaning to ask you, Thatz, Rath, what happened to her." Rune raised a quizzical brow. "You didn't leave her behind, did you?" He was glaring daggers, and as if this were literally true, Rath and Thatz were both shielding their heads with their hands. "

"It was my fault, Rune." Treisha said, stepping forward and up to the fairy. For a split second, the image of silver tears running down his cheeks burst into her mind. After pausing longer than natural, she shoved the image away. "I thought I saw someone I knew in the crowd, and told Rath and Thatz to continue onto Memphis Castle with me. I arrived only a moment ago, and decided to wait out here with the chamberlain until you guys were done with whatever battle you were doing."

The words came out in a rush, and Treisha wasn't happy about the note in her tone. She took a breath, steadied herself a bit, and then looked at Rune, awaiting his reaction. She half thought he would draw his sword and use it on the nearest standing person, which would be Treisha, since Rath and Thatz seemed to be cowering behind a cement pillar.

"Fine." Rune finally replied in half a sigh, half groan. He sounded tired, which he would be after the last hour's worth of stuff he'd been through. "Let's get out of here." He announced, and seeming absolutely ecstatic with this decision, as well as the fact Rune hadn't summoned his sword, Rath and Thatz came bounding out of hiding.

"Food at the diner right, Rune? I'm starving after all that fighting." Rune seemed hesitant. "You should be hungry too, Rune. After all the work you went through and that last thing with you and the prince and…." There was suddenly a sock stuffed into Thatz's mouth, which seemed to be something Rune had just finished summoning out of the air.

Yes, it was quite a good thing Treisha hadn't revealed that she'd stood witness to the whole battle. Rune clearly wouldn't have been happy.

"Let's head back to town guys." Rune was saying and headed down to the dirt road leading back to the city. Thatz threw the sock onto the ground, making sounds of disgust as he made quite fake gagging noises. Rath ran after Rune, and waved to the chamberlain as he walked backwards. Treisha ran after the two, and Thatz wasn't steps behind.

"Oh, I got it!" Thatz announced when they were sitting back at a diner in town a while later. Rune groaned.

"What have you got?" Rath asked curiously.

"Hopefully he has a special condition that renders him unable to speak. If so," Rune said, and sighed. He did appear quite tired. "I hope it's fatal."

"That wouldn't solve the problem." Treisha put in quietly, but Rune didn't seem to hear.

"Here's my idea!" Thatz was continuing excitedly, but no one else seemed to share his jubilation. "Whenever we need cash, we can dress Rune in drag and…." The Earth Dragon Knight didn't get any further than that.

"FORGET IT!" Rune shouted at him, immediately appearing wide awake when he realized what his friend was suggesting.

"But you're a natural!" Thatz went on, apparently oblivious to the hole he was digging for himself, even though Treisha could almost picture him disappearing into it by the second.

"Shut up! You do it!" Rune threw back at him, all sleepiness having completely vanished now.

Treisha ignored the two, feeling quite sleepy herself, and leaned over to Rath. She looked over his shoulder, as his eyes scanned the pages of the book he was reading. Her eyes went to the top of the right page, and the title of the book. She whispered to him in the softest of tones, not wanting to bring Rune down on his head any quicker than she had too.

"You know you shouldn't be reading that. Rune will kill you." Rath grinned without looking away from the page, and strangely, without his eyes ceasing the scanning of the page.

"Demons need killing, it's our job Treisha. I'm just helping the good mission along a bit." He whispered back, the toothpick sticking from between his lips bobbing up and down laughingly. Just then, another head was peering over the top of the book and down at what Rath was reading.

"Rath? What're you reading?" Rune seemed genuinely interested, which was understandable. Even Treisha could admit that Rath didn't seem the reading type.

Well, it depended on the reading material didn't it?

"Demon articles and maps!" Rath shouted happily. Immediately, Rune had stood to his feet, rocking the table a bit, and ripped the book from Rath's hands. He slammed the book onto the table, bending the spine, and ripping some of the pages.

Rath wasn't even paying attention to the elf.

"Thatz! Hey! Get me this!" Rath was saying, and leaned over to Thatz. The Earth Dragon Knight had a curious yet suspicious expression on his face, as he looked at a page of the book Rath had grabbed up when Rune had taken and severally damaged it. Apparently, it was a section from the back of the book with the "recommended reading" list.

"Hm? What?" Thatz said, sounding confused. He scanned the page to where Rath apparently had been talking about, and read the title of the recommended book aloud. "Fodor's Guide to Demon Locations."

Next to them had been standing one of those plastic walls like the Japanese have for dressing and undressing behind. They had one there right beside Treisha and the Knights table, and it had been very nicely decorated. "It had been……" being the key words. At the book title Thatz had just read out loud for their ears to hear, using one hand and his Water Dragon Knight strength, Rune had smashed a fist into this pretty wall. It was smashed right through, and fell to the floor in splinters. None but Treisha saw the people at the other tables turning to stare at them, or heard the words of the waiters and waitresses seeing the mess they had to clean up. Nope. The others were focused completely and utterly on each other.

"How about the one below, the "Zagat Guide to Enchanted Fairies?'" Thatz was continuing, pointing to another title on the list that he now held.

"No!" Rath groaned in a total complaining and bored tone.

"Rath!" Rune growled deep in his throat. "Thatz!" He screamed into the diner.

Treisha ducked under the table, just as Rune yanked the table cloth off, and all the drinks, plates and silverware went flying. Thatz had been smart enough to join her just in time, Rath, however, had not. He was now being smothered by a tablecloth by Rune, and the two boys were causing a terrible ruckus of wrestling on the floor.

"Geeze. Glad I avoided that!" Thatz said, gazing on at the other two with disinterest, but a grin too.

Treisha couldn't resist laughing heartily and boisterously, not her usual laugh, but a lot of unusual things had happened to her that day.

**There you go. Hope you enjoyed it, and this gets a good Hit count. It's been doing pretty well so far.**

**Rath: Hit? Hit counts? Are we talking about slaying demons?**

**Treisha: No. I think the authoress is talking about her story, because…..**

**Rath: Well, then I don't care. If it has nothing to do with me….**

**Treisha: Rath, it has YOU in it. THIS is the story.**

**Rath: Oh…..**

**Thatz: I think he just got defeated by a girl. Wow. Haven't seen that before.**

**Rune: We see it later though. **

**Rath: Yeah, once Cesia gets her butt into the story. At least she'll prove a good battle.**

**Treisha: You almost die. **

**Rath: So what, Treisha?**

**Treisha: Why am I even saying anything? (asking the other two Knights.) **

**Both shrug.**

**Thatz: In this kind of situation, I would just shut up, and watch as Rune kills him, and then as Rath pops back up for the next chapter unscathed. (Thatz thinks a moment.) I always did wonder about that. Later, we all keep talking about how important it is to keep him alive, and Rune keeps killing him, but he keeps coming back and….**

**Rune: So the mystery of Mineko Ohkami.**

**Rath: Well, I can I say if I got my hands on that woman, I would have a bone or two to pick with her.**

**Treisha: Why? You don't even know how this series of books ends yet. We don't know what happens in volume 25. **

**Me: Uh, guys? **

**All: Yeah?**

**Me: Volume 25 is out in just a matter of days, and I'm going to know what happens. So, if you ever want to get there and find out, STOP BLABBERING, and get back to work.**

**Silence.**

**Rath: Anger management, Night Silver, that is what I recommend for you.**

**Rune, Treisha and Thatz and me. Look whose talking.**

**Rath: HEY.**

**The others abandon him, as they vanish back into the computer screen with a word document pulled up titled "Chapter 5, part one: Finders Keepers." I, the authoress sit down to begin writing.**

**With four little voices backseat writing the whole damned way.**


	7. Chapter 7: Part 1: Finders Keepers

**Sorry it's taken so long everybody. The beginning of my New Year was abysmal. My grandmother went into the hospital, followed by life support within hours. Days later, my mom and dad rushed off to Elkhart Indiana, (where my grandmother lives) since it was said she didn't have much time. I spent the next four days taking care of my two younger brothers, (11 and 14) providing all transportation, food, and entertainment. **

**They got home, and 24 hours later, my grandmother died. We didn't have the finances for my parents to go back to attend the funeral. They also couldn't miss any more work than they already had. So, therefore, they missed it.**

**I was very close to my grandmother. It hurt to loose her. I've been going through some hard times….and especially with my social circle of friends. I'm loosing a lot of close friends, some by my decision, and some not so much, and some people are treating me in ways that I never thought my close friends were capable of.**

**A warning readers: everyone is capable of the unknown's. **

**Anyway, this is part of why I haven't been writing in a while. I really hope I start writing faster. Book 25 has already come out. I've read it six times, and now its sitting on my shelf. The next and last book should be translated into English and put on the bookstore shelves in several months. I NEED to hurry up…..so therefore, encouragement would be appreciated. **

**Thanks, and enjoy! **

**Night Silver's Whisper**

**Chapter 5: Part 1: Finders Keepers. **

Treisha's breath came fast, and her muscles were straining. There was a throbbing in her temples, and her lips felt chapped. They'd been hiking up this hill for what seemed forever. Rune and Thatz had given up on calling to Rath, who was way ahead of them. So far, any attempts to catch the Fire Dragon Knight's attention had been ignored. Rath was merely a shadow skirting up the hill, toward the top of the mountain. Rune and Thatz were both gasping for air just as much as Treisha, and seemed to be as tired of racing after the Fire Dragon Knight as she was.

Not to say the two didn't know what they were doing of course. Although tired they obviously were, and irritated even more so, Treisha could tell their steps on the rocky terrain were confident, their eyes focused ahead, and their voices, although annoyed in tone, were still full of strength. Every movement the Earth and Water Knight made, whispered of their Dragon Clan power. Treisha found herself incredibly envious.

"This is getting old." Rune muttered, and shoved his hair out of his face. He wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt.

"I think it got old in the first two hours." Thatz replied irritatingly. He gave a snort. "I'm not this paranoid am I?"

"If it concerned treasure or money instead of demons?" Treisha said before Rune could form the words, but as if to make up for this, Rune said the response right at the same time she did. "Yeah." She exchanged a smile with the blond Knight, and then pushed on in silence.

Treisha was quite sure the two Knights were going slower so she could keep up. She hated this knowledge, but forced herself to accept it. She was human after all, and even though Thatz was too, he was a Dragon now. She, however, was very clearly, not. The two had offered to stop for breaks more than five times in the last three hours, and she'd turned them down each time. She wanted to be seen as strong in their eyes. One day, she even hoped they'd treat her as an equal.

Although, this last wish would probably have to wait until they arrived in Draqueen.

The sun beat down on them, making sweat run between Treisha's shoulder blades under the long sleeve green shirt she wore. The two layered skirt she wore weighed her down significantly. She wished she could rid herself of it, the whole outfit in fact. She refrained from that urge though. It was so heavy, and made her extra hot. Why had they given her an outfit better fit for winter?

She found herself picturing wearing a tank top and breeches like they the DK characters did later in the series. She sighed. For a few moments, she fantasized with the image of herself as a Dragon Fighter, no matter how foolish and childish it made her feel.

She saw herself in a slightly roughed up blue tank top and a pair of black breeches tucked into the green boots Rune had given her. Her skin was tanned to a darker shade, and she was grinning. She saw a sword in her hand, shining silver as if it wanted to do battle as much as its wielder. Her shoulder length brown gold hair flew on the air, but her gray blue eyes didn't waver from its excitement, or its target.

They'd reached the top. Thatz went over the crest first. Rune followed him fluidly. Treisha was right behind. She calmed her breathing, as she tried to appear not totally exhausted. She realized the other two were looking straight ahead.

"There he goes." Thatz said, his eyes gazing at the black haired blur racing toward the only building set on the mountain. It appeared to be an information cabin, and apparently was Rath's destination. It was a visitor's center, actually.

"Come on." Rune announced with a groan. He ran after Rath. Treisha followed last. She was so tired from climbing she felt ready to drop, but she wasn't going to tell the Knights that. Her pride was getting in the way, she admitted to herself. Her pride, her confidence, her ego, whatever. It was keeping her from letting down, from looking weak in the Dragon Knights eyes. It was keeping her from failing in trying to compare herself to them, which was an impossible feat she shouldn't even be attempting. Her pride was too strong though. It was taking a bit of control. No matter her exhaustion, her pride would push her on.

She had a fleeting idea at this notion however, and that was: I wonder, would this be a quality Thethues would look for in a Dragon Fighter, or something that would get them thrown out immediately?

A moment later they reached the steps up to the Visitor's Center. Surprisingly, they found Rath waiting on the top step. He grinned broadly at them, perhaps albeit a little smugly, and then entered. The other three entered only steps behind, gasping for air.

"Hello!" Rath was announcing, smile still firmly in place. Rune bent over, placing his hands on his knees, where as Thatz was resting a hand on a nearby table for support. Both were muttering to themselves, supposedly about the stupidity, and the irritation toward their black haired friend. "Do you have a copy of "Fodor's Demon Guide?'"

Treisha glanced around at the room. She took in the walls of books, the wooden floor at her feet, and finished with the desk directly across from them. Behind it sat a man with brown hair held back with an orange and black bandana. He was smiling at his new customers from behind a pair of large glasses.

"Oh, that guide? Hmmm….let me see…." He rummaged around a bit in a book he withdrew from beneath the desk. It probably contained the stores records. Treisha, and it seemed it went for the other two as well, was far to out of breath to throw anything at Rath, or cry out exasperatedly at what he was requesting of the store keeper.

"It's sold out." The man replied a second later.

Rath looked shocked. Rune and Thatz had both just collapsed. Treisha covered her mouth with a hand, as she tried to hold back laughing.

This was probably one of those things Mineko Ohkami had planned. This was the twelfth store they'd visited after all, and what was the likeliness of all of them being sold out? Yeah, Treisha held Mineko accountable for this! Not that she minded. Any time with the knights was good time. Any time that got her closer to Draqueen and beginning Dragon Fighter training was also good.

Treisha saw a box saying, "free" on the side. She shuffled through the books. She found ones about demons, the local touristy places to visit, and good restaurants. She paused when she found something in particular. _Draqueen: The world inside the gates. _She flipped it open slowly, as if she were afraid it would unravel. The first page had the Dragon Lord and Lady on it. She sucked in her breath at their magnificence. Her eyes were drawn to the five men standing behind the two, all dressed in their finest.

The Officers.

They were graceful and strong in their postures, expressions and smiles…or lack thereof when it came to Tuethese's face.

Treisha wondered if one day she could be strong enough, respected and trusted enough, to stand by them. Not in drawings like this perhaps, but maybe in other ways. Would she ever rise that high?

"I won't let you!" Thatz was announcing as he whirled around toward her, and Treisha would have been thrown into the wall of books, but stepped aside just in time to avoid him. Thatz didn't even notice, as he placed what looked to be a map back among others on a shelf. Treisha glanced between him and Rune, who looked ticked off for some reason.

If she was not mistaken, she'd missed something while her mind had been lost in her "Draqueen daydreaming."

"Um, sir?" Said the store clerk behind the desk, and Treisha ignored the lot of them. She knew in a moment, the clerk would offer the Knight's the opportunity to play a game to win prizes. She instead flipped through the book again, and was glad that whoever had thrown her into this world had been intelligent enough to make sure everything was in English, and not Japanese.

Books away from where she stood now, when she would finally get to Dusis, she'd see what their world was really like. She would stay in one of their rooms, the grandeur of which she couldn't imagine. She would get to go before the Dragon Lord, and pay her respects. She'd get to watch Alfeegi bothering Ruwalk about giving Kai-stern more money for his adventures than was allowed.

She slid the book into the pack that Rune had given her a few days before, just as she heard a sound behind her. She glanced around a corner carefully, wondering if there was anybody else in the store. This was a long way for any commoner to travel. Any further noises the person might have made were drowned out by the noise of that Dragon Knights winning their prize behind Treisha and back at the counter. She smiled. She kind of remembered where this was going. She waited for the responses she would hear.

"SAY WHAT?" Came Thatz's shout.

"Thanks," Rune then shouted over Thatz. "But we can't accept it. Is there a runner-up prize?"

Treisha kept looking around the corner. She remembered who it was who came in, she was just waiting for her to make her appearance. It would be showy, as thieves often made their entrances, and it should be coming any time now. Treisha sent her eyes around corners, but didn't see the female thief.

Then Treisha saw her.

Kitchel was perched on top of one of the bookcases, which was why Treisha hadn't seen her immediately. She wore a small black T-shirt that showed her belly-button, and a small white jacket over it that was shorter than the layer underneath. She wore some ornate necklace on her upper chest, that had white beads hanging. She had some kind of band around her neck that looked leather, black gloves on both hands. Last, she wore yellow shorts that were the shortest Treisha had ever seen in the entire world of the Dragon Lord and Demon Lord. Kitchel also had a bag slung about her waist the color of gold, and wore ankle high purple boots, with white socks up to the knee. Last of all, her eyes were covered by large, thick sunglasses.

"Hey," Treisha said, cocking her head to the side. She saw Kitchel glance down towards here, snicker and grin, and then the thief took action. She used come kind of contraption she must have picked up on her many thieving adventurous, and used it to snap the ticket for the treasure hunt that the knights had just won, along with Rune's precious map to Dusis, right out of the hands that grasped them.

"Got the treasure map!" Kitchel exclaimed, smiling. "Bye!" And then she had leapt down from the bookcase, and was out the door before anybody had moved a muscle.

Treisha ran around the bookcase and back to where the others stood just in time to see the predicted chaos breakout. She had to lunge out of the way just as the knights went racing past her and out the door, Rath being dragged by Thatz.

"Come on Treisha!" Thatz yelled back at her, and she was about to take off, when she paused to glance back into the store. Her eyes caught the sight of the store clerk's head bouncing off of its neck.

"Nice trick, Jilge." Treisha mused, and then turned to race after the others.

It was a good thing that in her world she spent a lot of time hiking and camping. Most normal commoner's bodies wouldn't hold up very well under this kind of strain. Treisha smiled to herself at this thought though. When had she started using the word commoner?

She eventually caught up with the others Knights. She saw them grouped up behind a cluster of trees and bushes. In the greenery, the Knights were gazing out at the entrance to a cave. In front of it sat a wooden podium with a woman behind it. Even though she wore glasses and her hair black curls of hair was drawn up, Treisha still knew it to be Jilge, the woman who used to work for the Demon Lord Nadil, and who was now leading all four of them into a trap.

It was a rather silly trap.

But it was important. The Knights would run across something crucial in this place, called M---- Cave. A piece of priceless weaponry that wouldn't come to use for a long time, not wielded to protect the Dragon Tribe's palace in its darkest hours. Treisha knew there were many battles, deaths and blood to be spilt before they would come to that day. It's not a day she looked forward to. Now were the days she knew what would happen. Now were the days she would learn to fight so that she could protect the Lord, and his subjects. Now was the time to be without concerns and any fatal dangers. Later, would come the time when she'd miss these peaceful afternoons, and take up the sword she would carry, in the name of the one Lord L-----.

Treisha had been remembering and visualizing long enough, that when she glanced up, she realized the Knights had already entered and were out of sight.

Damn it. They didn't like to wait for her did they?

Treisha looked over to the podium, and saw that Jilge had already vanished.

This was a good discovery. Treisha was intelligent enough to know that keeping her name away from Shydman and Shindora for as long as possible was smartest. If they learned of her, and what she could do….the danger it would throw her in could jeopardize everything.

However, despite her precautions, Lady Jilge hadn't left quite yet. She was standing just inside the cave, in the darkness. She smiled as the 17 year old girl raced past her after her friends. She whispered to the demons that took her orders without thoughts, only with grimaces. As of right now, this girl was nothing more than an oddity trailing after people who were above her. Nothing more.

For now.

Treisha had hoped to see the Knights inside, bickering. However, apparently she was too late. She was standing at a fork in the trails, and didn't know which way to go. If she remembered right, Rune and Thatz went one way and Rath went the other. But still…didn't Rath end up trapped underground? She didn't want to end up down there. Without some sort of sword or weapon, or dragon for that matter, she didn't have the means to escape such a situation as the Fire Knight did. Therefore, her choice in directions could be a dangerous one.

She ended up going left.

A few minutes later, she feared she was lost. Treisha felt incredibly stupid and foolish at this point. She should have circled the cave, and gone to the exit. It would have been easy enough, but inside she'd gone inside. She didn't have Map pieces like Kitchel did, or a stone that the Dragon Lord had given the thief to navigate her way through this labyrinth. She didn't have the Knights, with their wonderful senses of direction…not that they were remotely good.

Suddenly, something sprang at her that had three eyes, and one of those said eyes was hanging by a string off the yokai's nose. Treisha shut her mouth tight so she wouldn't scream, as she stumbled several steps backwards. She then laughed at herself as she saw the fake demon in front of her.

How stupid of her!

How idiotic!

She'd forgotten this place was filled with fake demons and traps.

Just then, as if Jilge didn't want Treisha relaxing, the ground under her feet gave a shudder, and she nearly lost her balance. She steadied herself by gripping a rock in the stone wall next to her, and when the tremors had faded, she grinned again.

"And that would be Rath getting himself stuck underground." She mused as she righted herself.

Treisha took another step and the ground gave out under her. Half her body went down and through it, and the only reason she didn't fall all the way through into the pitch darkness salivating below, was because she grabbed onto the ledge with both hands.

"Shit." She muttered, not typically one to cuss, but when the situation called for it, she believed it a necessarily reaction. This felt like one of those times.

"Waaaaaaa!" Came a scream. Treisha looked up, to see that somebody was screaming and waving something in Treisha's face frantically. "Another demon!" The female kept screaming, and Treisha realized it was sunglasses being waved in her face. It didn't feel that good.

"Hey!" Treisha called, but wasn't heard. "HEY! KITCHEL!"

Finally, Kitchel stopped waving the pair of sunglasses in Treisha's face, and pulled back to look down at what she was seeing and what was very obviously….not a yokai.

"Kitchel, help would be appreciated." Treisha said, trying to hold onto the sides before the darkness below decided to eat her.

"Oh, okay." The thief finally said, and then assisted Treisha back up onto solid ground. "How do you know me?" She asked once they were both standing again, and Treisha was brushing herself off.

"Long story." Treisha replied, and laughed at herself inside. How many times would she have to use "that" answer when people asked her how she knew their names? She'd just have to be more careful about calling people by their names before they introduced themselves to her. "Short….I know you work for the Dragon Lord." Treisha had weighed the pros and cons of mentioning that part.

"What?" Kitchel snapped at her. Treisha pressed on.

"You work for the Dragon Lord, and you're here on official business decreed especially by him. That's why you're here." Kitchel stared with wide eyes, which quickly moved on to being accusatory.

"Do you work for him too?" She asked. "You don't look like somebody who does."

"You don't either." Treisha threw back amusedly. "You look life a common roadside thief." Treisha chuckled at this, and as surprised when Kitchel laughed too, however, it was Treisha who paused in puzzlement.

Reading the Dragon Knights series, she'd never liked Kitchel. She'd been her least liked character. She'd never seemed to serve the books a purpose, and she didn't help the plot along at all. She didn't "do" anything other than acquire the Three Treasures/the Map Pieces….which yes, were helpful in the end, but….Treisha had just thought up until now that when she met up with the female that they wouldn't get along at all. So why were they chatting so easily?

Whatever.

"I don't work for him currently." Treisha finally admitted. "But I am currently traveling to Draqueen in order to undergo Dragon Fighter training."

"Right…." Kitchel trailed, but didn't finish.

"Kitchel," Treisha said and motioned down the cave. "Let's get going. Who knows what kind of treasure is up ahead?" And she turned her back to face the other direction.

Oh yes, what kinds of treasure!

Such as the Snow Sword, perhaps?

If Thatz knew what was up ahead, he'd surely be salivating already.

Treisha herself was highly anticipating the coming excitements.

**So, I know I left off in a slightly odd spot, but I really wanted to get a chapter posted since it has literally been FOREVER. I do apologize for that! I am working on the next chappi immediately. **

**Oh, and for those who were interested, when I get to writing "That's the Way the Fortune Cookie Crumbles," that chapter will have the Knights finding out the ability that Treisha has, and that when they'd said she didn't look like she was from around here….how right they were!**

**But especially, the chapter after that, titled "Dark and Stormy Knights," is when Treisha gets to do some fighting of her own! Finally! I hate writing her as somebody who doesn't get to participate in that. If she's going to be a Dragon Fighter, she has to be stronger and tougher! That's more the character I want her to be. **

**So please tell me what you thought!**

**Night Silver's Whisper**


	8. Chapter 8 Part 2: Finders Keepers

Chapter 5, part 2: Finders Keepers

**Chapter 5, part 2: Finders Keepers. **

The cave was quiet, and without conversation between them, the silence felt even heavier. Treisha's thoughts bounced off the walls of her mind, viciously forcing concerns and worries before her eyes that she'd rather not have focused on.

The lighting was dim, but apparently supplied enough for Kitchel to read her map. Treisha had glimpsed the Draqueen map sticking out of the other girl's pocket, and wondered why the thief still possessed it. If she recalled correctly, Kitchel later told the Knights she didn't have it anymore.

"Kitchel, can I see that?" Treisha asked, motioning to the map.

"Yeah," Kitchel replied, tossing it to her without a second glance. "Consider it thrown away….since that is what I'd planned to do with it."

Treisha looked the map over, and recognized various familiar locations due to the maps that Mineko Ohkami had drawn into the volumes. She smiled at the sight of the Fairy Forest, then sighed, remembering the journey Rune would be sent on to Luwa. The fairy's one time home, Rune would face many perils on that trip, but he'd also gain a certain black haired friend.

Pocketing the map, Treisha noticed that they'd just entered a large room. Looking up and around, she knew where they were. The realization was not a difficult one to make. The sword buried in a nearby stone pillar was enough to make the notion obvious.

Kitchel approached it, but Treisha moved away. She had no interest in the coming interaction between two longtime separated thieves. They would merely argue with each other, exchange accusations and words of mistrust. Treisha heard enough of that from time spent with the Knights.

She'd just relaxed against the nearest rock wall, when she felt something rub against her leg, ruffling her skirt. Glancing down, she saw the Earth Dragon sitting on her boot. The "package" sat in front of him, his teeth still dug into the cloth, as if he feared someone were about to steal it from his keeping.

Smiling, she sighed onto the ground, just as she saw Thatz and Rune enter the room. Turning her eyes from the confrontation, Treisha ran her fingers down Earth's spine, and was surprised when the Dragon purred.

She hadn't realized Dragons could purr in this world.

Without realizing it, Treisha's fingers brushed down Earth's nose, and onto that which he was guarding. The fabric was rough beneath her fingers, chafed against her skin as no fabric had ever done.

She let her hand fall into her lap.

Too many thoughts swirled in her mind when she touched this package. She started thinking to the future, began skipping ahead of this book and onto those volumes that brought death and blood. The humor of the series would have long ended by then, and would have been replaced by darkness, a darkness that would sweep into the kingdom of Dusis, and into the hearts that would defend it.

Breaking into her thoughts, Treisha felt a gentle whisper within the stone at her back. She braced a hand against it, splayed her fingers against the surface, and knew she felt some sort of vibration thrumming against her fingertips. It felt like a whisper, but how can something vocal be felt through skin?

At once, Treisha realized that Earth had left her side. With a glance, she saw he'd gone to Thatz. The Dragon had dropped Nadil's Head into his owner's arms, and now sat perched on the Dragon Knight's shoulder.

No sooner did she realize this, that there was a terrible rumbling. Treisha turned, both feeling and sensing that the noise came from behind her, and had to immediately duck, as the Fire Dragon burst through the wall, and swept into the cavernous room. Pressing herself to the chilled rock, winds threw Treisha's hair into her face, as great wings flew dirt and other debris into the air. She jerked herself up.

"Rath!" She yelled at the rider on the back of the Fire Dragon. "You almost ran me over!"

"Sorry Treisha!" He called back, jumping down from atop Fire, who had shrank back to his original size by the time Rath's feet touched the ground. By the time Treisha walked over to the join the others, Thatz was already in his friend's face, blaming his fellow for the loss of their nearly gained treasure.

Treisha grinned.

They had no idea what would have happened had they even touched the sword!

Besides, Thatz would need that blade later. He couldn't gain it now, or it might ruin things and certain events later on.

Swiftly catching up with the others, Treisha sent a glance behind herself to the large hole in the wall Rath had just created. Using his Dragon to escape the trap he'd gotten himself into had been smart. Stuck underground, he wouldn't have had many options at his disposal, but as it often happened with Rath, the boy had chosen the right course of action.

Rune and Rath were already leaving the cage, had nearly passed through the exit Treisha hadn't seen appear. It must have been revealed when Rath burst into the room, causing much rock to slide, fall and reposition themselves.

Treisha smiled as she walked past a patch of ice in the wall that the others hadn't seen. Lady Jilge was now encased in ice, due to the fact she'd been to close to the sword when Rath had caused the earthquake.

"See you in a few years." Treisha tossed out the sentence, not to the yokai now frozen, but to the sword that lay somewhere out of sight.

Treisha fell in step with Thatz, who was momentarily hanging behind the other three. Rath was grasping both of Kitchel's hands in his own, and it was no mystery what he was begging her for. It only took hearing the note in Rune's exasperated voice to reveal all.

For the moment, Treisha wasn't paying them much attention. Her eyes were following Earth and Fire, who were walking alongside each other behind their master's heels. Neither was speaking, (holding up signs with words written on them) and yet it seemed they still walked as if upon a mission. Perhaps it was due to the package Earth was still burdened with. It did appear as if Fire was guarding it as well.

It was often hard to do guess-work with Dragons.

Suddenly, Treisha heard the word "Chantel," and was immediately jerked to attention.

"What was that?" She smoothly asked Treisha, who had been the person to speak the "word."

"I was just telling the boys here that if you want directions to the Capital, visit the fortune-tellers in Chantel. They'll point you in the right direction."

As Kitchel offered the others words of parting, Treisha let her eyes focus upon the sinking sun, and was far too distracted by her thoughts to even realize how blinded she was.

Chantel….that's where she'd told the knights she was traveling to. What was she going to do when they dropped her off? How was she to persuade them to continue to bring her along? Would it come down between speaking the truth of who she was, or traveling to Dusis alone? Neither option was appetizing by any means, but the situation in which she'd be forced to choose was sure to arise. Chantel wasn't far now, Treisha knew this.

"Treisha?" Rune inquired as they began strolling down the dirt path towards the distant wood.

"How far is it to Chantel?" She asked, sensing the question was safe enough to speak.

"We'll reach it by tomorrow evening. Why do you ask?" Before Treisha could reply, it was Thatz who interrupted.

"You want to break away from us already Treisha?" He demanded, making pouty eyes that suited him. Rune smacked him in the face with a fist not befitting of his figure.

"Perhaps she has just grown tired of Rath and you as constant irritations!"

"No," Treisha sighed, laughing. "It has nothing to do with that."

But the others weren't listening. They were already deeply involved in an argument with each other. Treisha's eyes were back to the sky, where stars stared down with intensity, and presented their earthly observer with beauty she felt unfit to gaze upon, and constantly feared she'd soon loose.

In her starry silence, Treisha did not notice Rath looking back at her, puzzlement in his eyes, along with a darker, more mysterious emotion that even the knight's friends would have had trouble deciphering.

**My apologies for this chapter being so short, compared to the last that was so long. **

**I shall inform you now, that in future chapters, things shall be better distributed. **

**And chapters shall come more frequently.**

**I wouldn't blame you if you don't believe me.**

**I haven't been very true to that promise in the past.**

**But let's see if I can improve, shall we?**

**And thanks for everybody's support. It's been so nice to get PM's, asking when I shall update next. It means that this story means something, and I guess I appreciate that. Much thanks.**

**And just so you know….the next chapter will be totally of my own creation. It'll take place before they arrive in Chantel.**

**We are so close to ending book one, dearest readers! I am excited. Are you?**

**Rath: We're excited that you're finally getting somewhere. How long has it been since you started this damned fanfic? **

**Rune: Since last year's June, I believe. **

**Thatz: (Munch. Munch. Munch.)**

**Rath: (Exasperated howl) that's stupid! She has the books; she has the time, what's the hold up? We characters aren't going anywhere, and speaking for myself here, I've been bored. **

**Treisha: Oh, stop your howling Rath. We're lucky enough we've even met Cesia at this point.**

**Thatz: (Munch. Munch. Munch.) **

**Me/Author: thanks for the support Treisha, but I don't think your helping.**

**Treisha: Well, at least I'M trying!**

**Me: (heavy sigh) in the words of Rune, "when did this become pick on the human day?" **

**Rath: Hey! Aren't there laws about copyrighting and using other people's sentences without permission first?**

**Thatz: (Munch. Munch. Munch.)**

**Treisha: Rath, let me remind you that if you piss the authoress off, she may just leave us right here, in-between chapters, without anything to do.**

**Rune: Speaking of permission, how about actually asking me? Since I own the sentence.**

**Treisha and Rath: SHUT UP.**

**Rune: (turning red with fury) Well excuse me, but this conversation wouldn't be going on if I hadn't said those words in the first place!**

**Me: Realistically Rune, you haven't yet. You don't say that until much later novels. **

**Silence.**

**Rath: (Turning to Treisha) See, this is what happens when we start caring too much about the author. **

**Treisha: No, this is what happens when you start mouthing off without doing your research first.**

**Thatz: (Munch. Munch. Munch.)**

**Rath: (puzzled) What research?**

**Rune: For heavens sakes Rath! She's referring to research on the Dragon Knights series, and since you are a main part of it, you should know exactly what we're talking about!**

**Rath: (looking further puzzled) I have NO IDEA what we're talking about. **

**Rune: (Throwing his arms in the air) Why I do I waste my time with you people!) **

**Rath: Get used to it Rune. We've got 25 more volumes to go before you can be done with us. **

**Treisha: (Rounding on Rath, pointing a finger at him) SO! You remember THAT, but not what we were talking about before?**

**Rath: (whining) don't confuse me further Treisha. I'm just a little dragon knight. I'm still growing. Rune is a million years old Fairy. **

**Rune: HEY!**

**Rath: (Ignoring Rune) You and our miss Author aren't from this world, and Thatz…..**

**Thatz: (Munch. Munch. Munch.)**

**Rath: I'm better than Thatz, but I'm still a growing dragon knight, and I get confused.**

**Treisha: (Rounding on Thatz) Thatz! Aren't you going to say something about this?!**

**Thatz sits up, a drumstick in one hand, a buttered biscuit in the other. **

**Thatz: About what? I haven't a clue in hell what you guys are talking about.**

**Treisha and Rune faint to the floor, exasperation, frustration, and mental exhaustion all taking their toll at once. Rath looks at the other two, glances over to Thatz.**

**Rath: Can I have a drumstick? **

**Thatz: Yeah. (Hands him one)**

**Silence.**

**Rath: Why can't they just talk demons? Then I'd know what they were talking about. **

**Thatz: Or food. **

**Rath: You're obsessed. **

**Thatz: And you're not? **

**Rath: I'm not obsessed. I'm dedicated. **

**Thatz: Do you want that drumstick? (Points to Rath's drumstick) **

**Rath: (Nods) **

**Thatz: Then you know what you have to do? **

**Rath: What?**

**Thatz: Munch. Munch. Munch.**

**Rath: Oh.**

**Rath: Munch…..Munch….Munch.**

**Thatz and Rath: Munch. Munch. Munch.**


	9. Chapter 9 A restless night

**The undependable Authoress has returned! I hope you have not given up on me! Here is a chappi, and I hope you stick around long enough for a review and for the next chap!**

**NS**

**Chapter 6: A less than peaceful night. **

The fire crackled and burned freely now, no longer requiring the constant attendance of its observers. There was a large pile of wood sitting several feet away, at the base of a large tree trunk. Leaning against its right side was Treisha. She was quietly fiddling with the pine needles of the forest floor, her mind currently absent and visiting with the stars. She'd been silent for most of the trip following their parting with Kitchel, her thoughts too preoccupied with complicated matters to focus on verbal conversation. She was sure Rune was aware of her inner turmoil, due to the glances he kept sending her way, but it wasn't possible for him to know just what was bothering her. For that, he'd have to know the secret that she was so desperately trying to keep from him.

Getting the fire started, despite the wetness of the wood in this area, was obviously quite simple. Their team of four possessed a fire-user, and so it took Rath no more than a second to set fire to the wood Rune, Thatz and Treisha had gathered. However, had it not been for Rune's swift intervention, the flames would have set the entire forest aflame.

It felt good to be warm again. It had started raining just before the sun had set, right as they began to make camp. They'd rushed through their firewood search, and were fortunate enough to discover a large rock with several logs collapsed on top of it, creating a small shelter under its edge. It was hardly big enough to fit them all, but if they sat up and leaned against the rock at their back, sleep might be a possibility.

However, sleep would be impossible for Treisha if she couldn't first silence her thoughts. Constantly and consistently, she focused on the city not days away.

Chantle.

That town could be what separated her from the knights, could be what tore her from them and left her abandoned on the porch of an Inn. She'd thought of so many ways she could convince them to let her stay, but none of them contained the truth. She could say she was a fortune teller, and knew of grave things approaching Dusis, which wasn't far from true honesty. However, such an action could cause her to become Draquen's official fortune teller, and if Cesia didn't occupy that position, terrible consequences could befall the Dragon Kingdom. She had to tell the knights the truth, for that was the only honorable option, and if she wanted to be an officer of the Dragon Lords, then honor had to be foremost in her mind.

She stared at her three companions, considering what the best course would be. Coming straight out and saying it was a terrible idea. If Rath got angry, which wasn't an unusual occurrence; he might try and set flame to the forest again. Besides, making any one of them angry could spell her certain abandonment in Chantle. She had to do this carefully, because she could lose everything if she didn't.

"Rath, please stop lighting those pinecones on fire. I can't keep putting out the sparks it sets off."

"It's my power as a fire dragon knight, so I'll use it as I wish. Do you own the pinecones Rune?"

The blond rolled his eyes, frustrated with the black haired boy as he always seemed to be.

"No, I do not own the pinecones, but if you burn down the forest, who do you think they'll blame?"

"Lightening?" Thatz put in without any true interest.

"I am going to strangle you if you give him any more encouragement at all." Rune threatened abruptly and Treisha chuckled quietly to herself. Rune threatened the lives of his two companions so frequently, and yet never did he follow through. Well, unless dropping large boulders on their heads or emptying a machine gun at them counted.

"Treisha!" Rath abruptly shouted. "Have a pinecone!"

The flaming thing towards her and though she'd already managed to dodge it, Thatz apparently felt that he should protect her from the attack anyway. However, he decided to do this by grabbing the package with Nadil's head. He darted in front of me and held it up, so that the pinecone bounced off of it.

Nadil's head was now on fire.

Rune shouted in alarm, Rath teetered over backwards due to his laughter, and Thatz was hurriedly stomping on the package in the attempt to put out the flames. Once he'd succeeded, everyone settled back into their seats exhaustingly.

"Lovely," Rune growled. "Now we have a squished Demon Lord's head on our hands. Lord Lyklouian will so pleased." He put his head in his hands while Rath snorted and then began laughing hysterically again. Suddenly Rune was standing with a boulder held high over his head, preparing to drop it onto the fire knight. Treisha lunged to her feet and proceeded to poke the boulder with a stick. Rune froze, then turned to raise his eyebrows at her. "Pray tell Treisha, what are you doing?"

She froze, then lowered the stick. In all honesty, she'd wanted to know if the boulder was real or not. She'd just been waiting for the chance to find out for sure whether if it was magic that summoned these futuristic objects, or if Rune was even aware of what his ability.

"Where did you get the boulder Rune?" She inquired politely, and the blond shot her a look, then frowned. He looked puzzled, as if he didn't actually know the answer.

"What boulder Treisha?" It was Rath who asked.

"That one!" I pointed to Rune's hands, where I could clearly see a large rock. "What other boulders do you see Rath?"

"I don't see any boulder." Rath mused, and leaned backwards on his heels. "I just see a very angry water knight who wants to crush me."

"He actually sees it," Thatz stage whispered to Treisha. "He's just trying to trick you into thinking your hallucinating. He's done that to me loads of times, making me think that I don't actually see Inn's and restaurants. It's really quite annoying."

Treisha force herself to relax. Her muscles were too tight due to the tension inside her head. She was overreacting, and she wouldn't let that happen. She was a cool character, who didn't lose her head in stressful situations. She'd been a member of a Search and Rescue Team back in the real world, and she'd had to handle very gruesome situations with injured people all the while remaining calm and in control. She needed to tap into those talents now.

The boulder finally vanished from Rune's possession and everybody settled back onto the ground. Treisha resumed leaning against her tree, and attempted to summon up the courage to say what she had to. For some odd reason, the package sitting next to Thatz kept distracting her. What would happen if she destroyed it now? Could she save the Dragon Lord and his kingdom heartache if she did? Could see save Kai-stern and Alfeegi's life? Rath couldn't be possessed by Nadil if the Dragon Lord's head was never returned to him. However, what consequences would result if she did commit this act? If Kai-stern didn't die, he couldn't give his life to save Rath. If Alfeegi didn't die, then the white dragon ball wouldn't be able to save Rune.

Treisha closed her eyes as images of their deaths overwhelmed her. She saw Alfeegi impaled by Rath's blade, saw Kai-stern slumped over the side of a coffin, but when she received a made up picture of the Dragon Lord collapsed on the floor of his throne room, bleeding from a fatal wound, she put her head in her hands. She couldn't destroy Nadil's head, but she couldn't let things play out like they were going to. The only thing she could do was get to Dusis, where she could ask the man she so respected what she should do. The only issue was getting that far.

"I'm not who you think I am," Her words might have a broken a conversation, or might have merely broken the silence. She hadn't been paying enough attention to know for sure.

"What was that Treisha?" Rune asked. "I couldn't hear you over the pinecones being burnt beside me." The elf sent a scorching look towards the knight beside him, who glanced away sheepishly.

"I am not who you think I am," she took a deep breath, conjured into her brain the images she'd experienced a moment before. She reminded herself that she did this for them. "I was never going to Chantle. That was a lie in order for you to trust me into your company." They all focused on her now, and even Rath had stopped setting things afire. When the explanation rushed out of her, she made sure that it was the full truth. There was no reason to hold back now. "You found me outside a forest, if you recall. I am not from there. I am not from anywhere near there either. I am from a world beyond yours, and you just happened to discover me right when I arrived." She watched their eyes, waiting for the slightest flash that would signal they thought her crazy. "In my world, the kingdom of Dusis and its three knights," she nodded to the boys. "You're all characters in books that my people read. This is why I knew who you were on sight. In truth, I know where you come from and who you are. In truth, I probably know more about you than you do."

She stopped here because of the dark look that slipped into Rath's eyes. It had unnerved him when she'd said she knew who they were. He was likely now wondering just how much she could really know.

"Treisha," Rune's voice held incredible doubt. "Let me get this straight. You want us to believe that you come from another world? A world in which ours is merely a series of manuscripts?"

"I know its hard to believe." She responded instantly. "But will you give me the chance to convince you?" All three nodded, and she took a deep breath, knowing she could not reveal too much or she might accidentally turn them against her instead. She'd already seen that expression in Rath's eyes, and she didn't want it infecting the other two. She sure as hell knew enough to unnerve all of them.

"Thatz," she directed her gaze on him, thinking he might be the easiest one to convince. "You became a dragon knight by breaking into the castle itself." His eyes were already widening. "You were attempting to steal Earth, but you were interrupted by the Dragon Lord. You didn't know his identity until you were leaving. You returned later possessed by a Yokai. You nearly died, but Earth chose to save you instead." She paused in order to catch her breath.

"She can't know that." Thatz whispered sideways to Rath, sounding startled. "I didn't take anyone with me on that mission, not even Kitchel." He looked back to the girl who'd so surprised him. "You can't know that."

"She's lying," Rath chuckled. "Dragons don't just choose sporadically like that. I mean, I knew Earth's taste had to have been odd if he chose you, but still…"

"Shut up!" Thatz snapped at him, and Treisha worried that she'd already stuck a nerve without meaning to. "What else do you know?" He leaned forward, locking eyes with her, and she wanted to draw back but sensed she needed to stand her ground.

"I know much more Thatz. I've read the books based on your lives and all the lives of the Dragon Castle."

"When do these books begin and at what point do they conclude?" Of course it would be Rune who asked the logical questions.

"Including flashbacks, I know your lives as far back as when you three were kids." That surprised Thatz, jarred Rune, and caused Rath's eyes to narrow. "And I know as far into the future as three years from now."

Rath leaned forward, and with his eyes still narrowed, spoke quietly to her. "What do you know about me?"

"When you were young, you had frequent fevers during which the officers and Raseleane would read aloud to you. You made a promise to Kai-stern when you were young, and you cannot berate Thatz for why his dragon chose him." She had to leave it there, because anything more revealing and Rath would shut down on accepting her immediately. To avoid giving him the chance, Treisha moved her attention directly to Rune, who would be the easiest.

"Rune, I know where you grew up and with whom." She couldn't mention his royal elfin blood, as neither of the knights yet knew about it. "You became a knight against your will Rune, and had to give up a lot in order to do so. You gave up skills and lost certain people." Treisha hoped that he knew what she was talking about, that she knew he'd given up his elfin powers and his wife in order to take up the sword.

They settled into silence and all Treisha could do was wait for their reactions and later, their decisions. She'd done what she could, had explained to the best of her abilities, and now everything was left up to them.

"She did know who we were immediately," Thatz supplied, shrugging his shoulders. "She also knew what was in the package without ever asking or looking."

"She's never shown fear in the face of the demons," Rath put in, voice devoid of emotion but his eyes holding more than she'd ever thought possible. "She's even held her own once or twice."

"You're both just going to believe this?" Rune demanded then sent a helpless look towards the skies. "This is insane!"

There, he'd said that word she so feared. It was clear that he doubted her, and it was vital that she have Rune's support. If she didn't, then the support of the other two was worthless. Rune was the leader of this trio, and if he decided bringing her along wasn't safe or smart, then there was no doubt in Treisha's mind that the other two would support him.

"Didn't you hear what she said Rune?" Thatz asked. "She knows the future of Dusis two years into the future! Just imagine everything she could tell us!"

"Take a logical look," Rath looked over and connected gazes with the elf who typically just argued with him. "Consider that the Dragon Lord might want her, even if we don't."

Those words drove into her almost as if one of their swords had been buried in her chest. Suddenly, she felt as if she wanted to get up and walk away. She'd walk in the direction of Chantle, find herself a horse and then make for Dusis on her own. She wouldn't burden these boys or become a liability to them. If leaving them meant she could still end up at their majesties side, then she'd do it.

Rath had apparently seen the look come onto her face, because he frowned, then there was that dark expression in his eyes again. What Treisha would have given to know his thoughts then.

"Why am I the only one being smart here?" Rune exclaimed, looking at each of them with exasperation. "We cannot take her with us, regardless if she knows who we are. We're knights of his majesty the Dragon Lord, and any civilian with us will be placed in danger."

"These are the same arguments you made when I first asked to go with you, and you agreed then." Treisha finally got her own words in. "What's changed between then and now? Why is there any reason not to trust me now as you did then? Have I given you a reason not to trust me Rune?"

"No," the elf began. "But…"

"If you don't take me with you Rune, I'll find a way there myself. I have business at the castle, so leave me behind if you want, but be sure that you'll me again down the way." She paused, waited for them to argue if they wanted. They didn't, so she went on. "Take me with you to the Dragon Lord. Let him decide what to do with me."

Rune regarded her coolly, as if deciding what level of trust he had for her. In the end, he sighed and rolled his eyes, which apparently signaled to his comrades that he'd given in.

"Looks like you're staying." Rath grinned at me, but I still felt that there was something he was withholding.

"Goody!" Thatz clapped his hands together. "It'll be nice to have a gambling partner who doesn't take my money away!" Rune looked annoyed. "A partner who actually understands the rules too!" Rath scowled. "

Abruptly, there was a gun in Rune's hand. He had it aimed at Thatz. The brown haired boy got up and began running, with the manic blond not far behind.

The worst had happened, her fear had come to pass. It felt like a large weight had been taken off of Treisha's shoulders. She had hated lying to the knights, and was delighted she wouldn't have to anymore.

"Treisha!" Thatz shouted. "HELP ME!"

"Help me clobber him more like!" Rune tossed back as they zigzagged through the woods.

"You don't need any help with that!" Thatz yelped.

Treisha leaned back and grinned. She was on her way now, on her way to saving the world. Not hers, but theirs, and maybe if she hung around long enough, she could come to call it hers.

**Rath: So, we are finally back? Did you get bored with us miss authoress?**

**Rune: Nah, she just got distracted Rath. Leave her alone.**

**Thatz: Can you two stop arguing and come over here so we can celebrate?**

**Rune: Pray tell, celebrate what?**

**Treisha: Isn't it obvious? The fact that you all know the truth!**

**Rath: The truth? You mean that your totally nuts!**

**Treisha: Did I not give you enough proof that I'm not lying? I can give you more if you want! Such as your less than human Rath. Your a wee little demon boy who enjoys killing other wee little demons.**

**Rath: HEY! Miss authoress, she is picking on me!**

**Me/Author: You honestly expect to get help from me NOW? I do believe you insulted me a moment ago.**

**Rath: She called me a wee little demon....**

**Rune: Which you are......**

**Rath: When did this become Pick On Rath Day? **

**Rune: It can't be Pick On The Elf day, because I don't say that line until WAY later.**

**Treisha: Didn't we cover this conversation at the end of the las chapter? We already talked about copywrites on that quote of yours Rune.**

**Rune: And did that stop the authoress from stealing my quote anyway? Nope!**

**Thatz: Are you guys ever going to come over here and eat with me?**

**Rath: Are there demons?**

**Thatz: To eat?**

**Rath: NO! To fight you idiot!**

**Thatz: No......**

**Rune: Go fight some wee little demons Rath. Go on!**

**Rath goes and cowers under Thatz's table.**

**Treisha: Rune, that was going too far. You've hurt his feelings.**

**Rune: What? Your the one who called me a wee little demon in the first place!**

**Thatz: She's right Rune. Your a hurtful person. **

**Treisha: Come on Rath. Come on out.**

**Me/Author: This is strange, even for you guys. Just thought you should know. **

**Treisha continues to try and cox Rath out from under the table. He refuses.**

**Treisha: Fine, we'll eat under the table. Come on Thatz.**

**Thatz slides under the table, taking a very full plate with him. Rune walks over, glances underneath.**

**Thatz: Nope Rune. You are not allowed. Your a demon hurter.**

**Rune: So what are you worried about Thatz? You are not a demon.**

**Thatz: Nope, I am not.**

**Treisha: Correction, you were when you broke into the dragon castle and attacked the dragon lord. **

**Thatz: Correction Treisha, I was POSSESSED by a demon, never actually was one. **

**Treisha: How can you tell the difference between being possessed and being one? **

**Thatz: Am I one now? **

**Treisha: Do I look like one? **

**Thatz: Does Rath?**

**Treisha: Good point.**

**Rath: HEY! Now your all demon hurters. GO away!**

**Treisha: LOOK RATH! A DEMON!**

**Rath: WHAT? WHERE? **

**SMACK! Treisha punches the side of his head and he keels over. Everyone stares in shock. **

**Thatz: Can you believe she just did that?**

**Rune: I was going to, but I'm too far away.**

**Thatz: I was going to, but I'm afraid he'll kill me when he wakes up.**

**Treisha looks fearful.**

**Treisha: Might I borrow one of those machine guns Rune? Just to make sure I am still alive for the next chapter?**

**Rune: Don't ruin them. The authoress only gives me so many.**

**Me/Author: Shouldn't you ask me first? I am the author around here. I could turn those machine guns into roses if I wanted to.**

**Rune: You wouldn't.**

**Thatz: They'd be very fitting to you though.**

**SMACK! Rune knocks out Thatz.**

**Treisha: Another one bites the dust eh Rune? **

**Rune: I am surprised you didn't do it.**

**Treisha: I have to admit Rune, but....I always thought you were gorgeous in drag while I was reading the DK books.**

**SMACK, and the third bites the dust. Rune settles at the tables, pulls a plate of food towards him.**

**Me/Author: Rune? **

**Rune munches on the food.**

**Me/Author: Rune? **

**Run grins widely. **

**Rune: If they aren't awake, then I won't get angry with them. If they don't get angry, the machine guns won't appear and you won't turn them into roses. What a perfect meal.**

**Deep chuckles drift into the air from beneath the table, and then directly across the room, Rath raises up from the ground, a fireball hovering over each hand. Rune put up a hand, then a fireball was thrown at him, went through him and burned him to a dusty crisp.**

**Me/Author: Rath? How am I supposed to write the next chapter without Rune?**

**Rath continues to cackle.**

**Me/Author: Rath! **

**Rath: WHAT?**

**The fire dragon knight is struck by lightening, and the sound of cackling cut across the sky as their world's creator laughs with contentment. **


End file.
